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ARYAN    SUN-MYTHS 


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ARYAN  SUN-MYTHS 


THE 


ORIGIN   OF    RELIGIONS 


d  OV7.    ^^ 


tf777/   /iiV   INTRODUCTION  BY 


CHARLES   MORRIS 

Author  of  "  A  Manual  of  Classical  Literature,"  and  "  The 
Aryan  Race  :  Its  Origin  and  Its  Achievements." 


TROY,  N.Y. 

NIMS  AND  KNIGHT 

1889 


Copyrighted,  1889, 

By  Nims  and  Knight. 


All  Rights  Reserved. 


PREFACE. 


The  attention  of  the  writer  having  been  called  to 
the  fact  that  all  Indo-Germanic  nations  have  wor- 
shipped crucified  Saviours,  an  investigation  of  the  sub- 
ject was  made.  Overwhelming  proof  was  obtained 
that  the  sun-myths  of  the  ancient  Aryans  were  the 
origin  of  the  religions  in  all  of  the  countries  which 
were  peopled  by  the  Aryans.  The  Saviours  wor- 
shipped in  these  lands  are  personifications  of  the 
Sun,  the  chief  god  of  the  Aryans.  That  Pagan 
nations  worshipped  a  crucified  man,  was  admitted  by 
the  Fathers  of  the  early  Christian  Church.  The  holy 
Father  Minucius  Felix,  in  his  Ociavius,  written  as 
late  as  a.  d.  211,  indignantly  resents  the  supposition 
that  the  sign  of  the  cross  should  be  considered  as 
exclusively  a  Christian  symbol ;  and  represents  his 
advocate  of  the  Christian  argument  as  retorting  on 
an  infidel  opponent  thus  :  "  As  for  the  adoration  of 
crosses,  which  you  object  to  against  us,  I  must  tell 
you  that  we  neither  adore  crosses  nor  desire  them. 
You  it  is,  ye  Pagans,  who  worship  wooden  gods,  who 


are  the  most  likely  people  to  adore  wooden  crosses, 
as  being  parts  of  the  same  substance  with  your  dei- 
ties. For  what  else  are  your  ensigns,  flags,  a^nd 
standards,  but  crosses  gilt  and  beautified  ?  Your 
victorious  trophies  not  only  represent  a  simple  cross, 
but  a  cross  with  a  man  upon  it."  TertuUian,  a 
Christian  Father  of  the  second  and  third  centuries, 
writing  to  the  Pagans,  says:  "The  origin  of  your 
gods  is  derived  from  figures  moulded  on  a  cross. 
All  those  rows  of  images  on  your  standards  are 
the  appendages  of  crosses  ;  those  hangings  on  your 
standards  and  banners  are  the  robes  of  crosses" 
{Egyptian  Belief,^.  217).  Arrian,  in  his  History  of 
Alexander^  states  that  the  troops  of  Porus,  in  their 
war  with  Alexander  the  Great,  carried  on  their 
standards  the  figure  of  a  man.  Justin  Martyr,  in 
his  Dialogue  with  Trypho,  says  that  there  exist 
not  a  people,  civilized  or  semi-civilized,  who  have 
not  offered  up  prayers  in  the  name  of  a  crucified 
Saviour  to  the  Father  and  Creator  of  all  things. 
Eusebius,  the  ecclesiastical  historian,  says  that  the 
names  of  Jesus  and  Christ  were  both  known  and 
honored  among  the  ancients  {Ecd.  Hist.,  lib.  i.  chap, 
iv.).  We  find  Saint  Paul  avowing  that  he  was  made 
a  minister  of  the  gospel,  which  had  been  preached 
to  every  creature  under  heaven  (Col.  i.  23).  For 
centuries  after  the  time  assigned  as  the  birth  of  Jesus, 


7. 

he  was  not  represented  as  a  man  on  a  cross.  The 
earliest  representation  of  him  was  as  a  lamb  {^History 
of  our  Lord  in  Art^  Vol.  I.) .  This  custom  continued 
until  the  pontificate  of  Agathon  (a.d.  608),  during 
the  reign  of  Constantine  Pogonatus.  By  the  Sixth 
Synod  of  Constantinople  (Canon  82),  it  was  ordained 
that  instead  of  the  ancient  symbol  which  had  been 
the  lamb,  the  figure  of  a  man  nailed  to  a  cross 
should  be  represented.  All  this  was  confirmed  by 
Pope  Adrian  I.  (Dupuis's  Origin  of  Religious  Belief 
p.  252  ;  also  Higgins's  Anacalypsis,  Vol.  II.  p.  3). 

The  writer  makes  no  claim  to  originality,  except- 
ing in  the  arrangement  of  this  work.  The  endeavor 
has  been  simply  to  condense  what  has  been  obtained 
from  other  works. 

The  original  intention  was  to  give  a  brief  sketch, 
with  an  appended  list  of  works  from  which  the  mate- 
rial was  taken ;  but  on  making  an  addition  to  the 
book  it  was  deemed  best  to  give  references.  The 
references  for  the  original  sketch  will  be  found  at 
the  end  of  the  book. 

The  writer  has  been  favored  in  having  an  Introduc- 
tion by  one  so  familiar  with  the  subject  as  Mr.  Charles 
Morris,  author  of  The  Aryan  Race. 

Boston,  February,  1889. 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Introduction ii 

List  of  Books  consulted •.     .     .  21 

Aryan  Sun-Myths  the  Origin  of  Religions  .     .  27 

Appendix  A 147 

Appendix  B 153 

Appendix  C 158 

Appendix  D 159 

Appendix  E 166 

Appendix  F 170 

Reference  Notes 179 

Index 189 


#^ 


INTRODUCTION. 


It  seems,  at  first  glance,  remarkable  with 
what  readiness  the  Teutonic  and  Celtic  tribes 
dropped  their  ancestral  faiths  and  accepted 
Christianity,  now  through  the  persuasions  of  a 
missionary,  now  at  the  bidding  of  a  chief.  But 
a  fuller  study  of  the  subject  renders  the  unusual 
ease  of  this  conversion  much  less  surprising,  by 
making  it  apparent  that  they  rather  added  the 
leading  dogmas  of  Christianity  to  their  old 
faiths  than  replaced  the  latter  by  the  former. 
They  ceased  to  worship  Odin  and  the  lesser 
deities,  and  began  to  worship  Christ,  the  Virgin, 
and  the  saints ;  but  they  invested  the  latter  with 
many  of  the  attributes  of  the  former,  retained 
most  of  their  old  religious  dogmas  and  cere- 
monies, and  converted  primitive  Christianity 
quite  as  much  as  they  were  converted  by  it. 
The  conversion  was,  indeed,  as  much  a  change 
of  names  as  of  beliefs.  Though  the  ethics  of 
Christianity  slowly  leavened  this  swarming  mass 
of  barbarism,    the    theology  of  the    new   faith 


12 


became  so  closely  interwoven  with  that  of  the  old 
that  it  is  not  easy  to  this  day  to  separate  them. 
The  nineteenth-century  critical  study  of  reli- 
gious beliefs  and  the  progress  of  the  science  of 
comparative  mythology  have  gone  far  towards 
clearing  up  this  mystery  of  the  past,  and  are 
leading  the  way  to  a  science  of  comparative 
theology,  as  students  break  through  the  artificial 
barrier  of  sacredness  which  has  been  raised 
around  this  or  that  system  of  belief,  and  dare 
to  question  where  older  students  deemed  it  their 
duty  to  adore.  It  is  being  more  and  more 
widely  held  that  no  belief  can  be  sacred,  that  all 
faith  must  rest  either  upon  evidence  or  blind 
acceptance,  and  that  they  who  base  their  belief 
upon  a  study  of  facts  are  far  superior  intel- 
lectually, and  certainly  equal  morally,  to  those 
who  accept  dogmas  upon  authority.  Faith  has 
been  covered  with  a  veil  which  it  was  declared 
impious  to  lift,  and  the  very  word  exalted  into  a 
kind  of  magic  formula,  which  was  deemed  pow- 
erful enough  to  move  mountains.  But  what  is 
faith,  critically  considered?  It  is  either  an  un- 
questioning acceptance  of  the  assertions  of  an- 
cient books  and  modern  teachers,  which  the 
reasoning  powers  of  the  individual  are  auto- 
cratically forbidden  to  deal  with;  or  it  is  a 
beh'ef  reached    through    doubt    and    question, 


13 


the  persistent  study  of  facts  and  the  fullest 
exercise  of  the  intellect.  In  the  latter  case  it  is 
the  actual  belief  of  the  individual ;  in  the  former, 
the  belief  of  somebody  else,  which  has  been 
instilled  into  the  receptive  mind  of  the  disciple, 
and  before  whose  sacredness  every  intrusive 
doubt  and  irreconcilable  fact  must  bow  the 
head  in  worship. 

This  dogma  is  a  relic  of  the  Dark  Ages.  It 
is  based  upon  the  general  ignorance  which  pre- 
vailed in  ancient  communities  and  their  restful 
dependence  upon  the  superior  learning  of  their 
teachers.  It  is  utterly  out  of  accordance  with 
the  general  education  of  modern  peoples,  and 
the  spirit  of  research  which  is  now  everywhere 
active,  and  which  is  far  too  vigorous  to  be  re- 
pelled by  the  highest  fence  of  theological 
interdict. 

The  study  of  the  mythological  systems  of 
ancient  ;iations  has  revealed  many  curious  and 
unlooked-for  facts  and  correspondences.  It  has 
been  made  apparent,  in  the  first  place,  that  those 
mythologies  had  their  origin  in  primitive  ideas 
about  the  movements  of  the  heavenly  bodies, 
the  variations  of  day  and  night,  summer  and 
winter,  and  other  natural  phenomena,  which 
were  in  time,  through  the  modification  of  human 
ideas,  transformed  into  the  doings  of  a  throng 


H 


of  deific  beings.  The  worshippers  did  not  know 
whence  came  their  gods.  We,  who  can  ap- 
proach the  subject  without  prejudice  and  big- 
otry, and  to  whom  mythology  has  ceased  to  be 
sacred,  can  easily  trace  their  origin,  and  point 
out  nearly  every  step  of  their  unfold ment.  It 
has  become  evident,  in  the  second  place,  that  a 
close  affinity  exists  between  the  mythological 
ideas  of  different  and  often  widely  separated 
countries,  the  resemblance  extending  not  only 
to  their  broader  features,  but  in  some  cases  to 
their  minor  details  of  dogma  and  belief.  This 
correspondence  in  belief  is  undoubtedly  due  to 
two  causes ;  primarily  to  the  fact  that  the  steps 
of  unfoldment  of  the  human  intellect  and  the 
growth  of  ideas  have  been  closely  similar  in  all 
civilizing  peoples;  and  secondly  to  the  inter- 
course of  tribes  and  nations,  and  the  outflow  of 
ideas  over  the  earth,  by  the  several  methods  of 
peaceful  interchange  of  views,  warlike  conquest 
and  forcible  conversion,  and  propagandism  by 
missionary  efforts.  These  various  influences 
have  tended  to  bring  into  some  degree  of  con- 
formity the  religious  systems  not  only  of 
Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  but  also  those  of  the 
Old  and  the  New  World,  between  which  some 
communication  very  probably  existed  in  ancient 
times. 


IS 


The  primary  religious  ideas  of  all  peoples 
were  undoubtedly  much  the  same.  The  un- 
questioned supremacy  of  the  sun  among  the 
heavenly  bodies,  the  striking  changes  to  which 
it  was  subjected  in  the  variation  from  day  to 
night,  and  from  summer  to  winter;  its  life- 
.giving  beneficence,  and  its  seeming  struggle 
with  the  demons  of  storm  and  cold;  not  only 
everywhere  exalted  this  heavenly  body  into  the 
position  of  king  of  the  gods  in  every  system  of 
nature-worship,  but  gave  rise  to  numerous 
myths,  which  necessarily  in  some  measure  cor- 
responded, since  they  were  everywhere  based  on 
the  same  phenomena  of  nature.  It  is  true  that 
nature-worship  was  not  the  sole  primitive  reli- 
gious conception  of  mankind.  Various  other 
general  ideas  made  their  way  into  and  influ- 
enced systems  of  belief,  prominent  among  these 
being  the  custom  of  ancestor  worship,  which 
widely,  perhaps  universally,  prevailed  in  de- 
veloping nations,  and  exerted  a  vigorous  in- 
fluence upon  unfolding  religions.  Mythology, 
however,  occupies  the  most  prominent  position 
in  the  growth  of  religious  beliefs.  Ancestral 
and  other  systems  of  worship  have  influenced 
religious  practice  and  ceremony  to  a  marked 
extent,  but  have  had  much  less  to  do  with  the 
growth  of  dogma  than  the  intricate  details  of  the 


i6 


history  of  the  gods,  to  which  the  numerous 
phenomena  of  nature  gave  rise.  Over  religious 
belief  the  sun  has  exercised  a  dominant  in- 
fluence, and  still  faintly  yet  distinguishably 
shines  through  the  most  opaquely  obscure  of 
modern  theological   dogmas. 

The  work  to  which  I  am  gratified  in  being 
requested  to  append  these  introductory  remarks', 
is  designed  to  point  out  in  detail  the  corre- 
spondences of  religious  dogma  to  which  I  have 
alluded.  How  well  or  ill  it  does  so  may  be  left 
for  readers  to  decide ;  but  as  a  reader  having 
some  previous  acquaintance  with  the  subject, 
I  should  say  that  it  has  done  so  remarkably 
well,  and  that  it  would  not  be  easy  to  make  a 
stronger,  fuller,  and  clearer  presentation  of  the 
facts  in  so  limited  a  space.  The  subject  is  one 
worthy  of  a  much  more  extended  treatment. 

The  only  bone  of  contention  in  the  work  is 
its  inclusion  of  the  dogmas  of  Christianity 
among  mythological  outgrowths.  And  yet 
very  few  of  these  dogmas  are  the  direct  fruit 
of  Christ's  teachings.  Very  many  of  them  are 
the  work  of  later  theologians,  who  were  in- 
fluenced both  by  their  own  religious  education 
and  the  demands  of  their  congregations.  Chris- 
tianity arose  among  the  Jews,  a  people  whose 
religious  system  had  never  been  strongly  myth- 


17 

ological,  and  had  become  much  less  so  in  the 
course  of  time.  But  the  new  doctrine  was  not 
accepted  by  the  Jews.  It  found  its  chief  con- 
verts among  peoples  of  Aryan  origin,  —  the 
Greeks,  the  Romans,  the  Teutons,  the  Celts, 
etc.,  —  peoples  among  whom  mythology  had 
become  extraordinarily  developed,  and  whom 
it  was  simply  impossible  to  convert  in  a  mass 
to  radically  new  ideas.  They  accepted  Christ 
and  his  moral  teachings,  with  the  skilfully  organ- 
ized church  system  of  the  primitive  Christians ; 
but  their  older  mythological  belief  was  not  worn 
as  a  cloak  to  be  thrown  off  at  will,  but  was 
rather  a  plant  whose  roots  had  penetrated  to 
every  fibre  of  their  beings,  and  had  become  an 
intimate  part  of  the  texture  of  their  minds.  It 
strongly  influenced  the  most  learned  among 
them.  With  the  unlearned  it  continued  the 
prevalent  system  of  belief,  and  insinuated  itself 
into  the  dogmas  of  the  new  church  with  a  power 
impossible  to  resist.  It  may  be  repeated  that 
the  Christian  theology  of  to-day  was  not  born 
with  Christ  and  his  apostles.  Its  growth  was 
slow.  Traditions  arose,  partly  based  on  old 
myths,  partly  on  misconceptions  of  Christ's  life 
and  teachings,  which  affected  even  the  writers 
of  the  several  lives  of  Christ,  and  more  strongly 
those  who  were   farther  removed    from   Christ. 


i8 


From  the  very  start  legendary  dogmas  of  myth- 
ological origin  seem  to  have  arisen  in  the  new 
church,  to  have  become  the  firm  beliefs  of 
congregations,  and  to  have  affected  the  minds 
of  theologians  much  more  than  they  themselves 
were  aware  of.  And  as  the  new  faith  spread 
through  the  world,  it  became  more  and  more 
imbued  with  old  thought,  until  mythology  be- 
came the  woof  of  that  system  of  which  morality 
was  the  warp. 

Christianity,  properly  considered,  is  not  a 
system  of  belief,  but  a  system  of  ethics.  Christ 
taught  no  creed.  His  life  was  spent  in  the  in- 
culcation of  lofty  ideas  of  morality.  The  few 
dogmas  which  he  did  assert  are  full  of  evidence 
of  the  influence  of  the  preceding  Hebrew  faith, 
and  were  doubtless  the  outcome  of  his  early 
religious  education.  Many  of  his  utterances 
have  been  tortured  into  creeds,  but  few  of  them 
bear  the  interpretations  that  have  been  laid 
upon  them.  He  was  a  moral  teacher,  pure  and 
simple,  and  as  an  inculcator  of  moral  ideas  he 
stands  at  the  summit  of  mankind.  His  teachings 
are  the  simplest  and  loftiest,  his  life  was  the 
noblest  and  most  self-sacrificing,  that  literature 
and  history  present  to  our  gaze.  But  for  the 
dogmas  of  Christianity  he  is  not  responsible. 
They  grew  up  after  his  death,  through  the  slow 


19 

years  and  centuries,  under  the  influence  of  a 
host  of  more  ancient  ideas  and  mythological 
conceptions,  and  the  bulk  of  them  have  no  more 
to  do  with  the  Christianity  taught  by  Christ  than 
has  the  mythology  of  the  Aztecs.  Christianity 
was  simply  thrown  into  a  world  seething  with 
religious  beliefs  and  fancies,  and  could  not  but 
take  up  some  accretion  of  these  prevailing  ideas, 
which  gathered  around  it  like  clouds  around  the 
sun.  The  pure  light  of  Christ's  teachings  lay 
within,  but  was  long  almost  lost  in  the  obscuring 
doctrine  that  belief  is  the  essential  of  virtue, 
conduct  a  minor  accessory;  that  lapse  from 
virtue  may  be  readily  pardoned,  lapse  from 
faith  is  unpardonable.  Such  a  doctrine  has 
done  infinite  mischief  to  the  cause  of  Chris- 
tianity. Fortunately  it  is  ceasing  to  prevail. 
The  sun  is  burning  through  the  clouds,  and  the 
example  of  Christ's  life  and  the  loftiness  of  his 
precepts  are  becoming  of  more  value  in  religion 
than  the  creeds  advanced  by  later  theologians; 
and  we  may  look  forward  with  hope  to  the  time 
in  which  conduct  will  become  the  essential  fea- 
ture of  religion,  and  faith  be  relegated  to  its  true 
position  in  the  history  of  human  thought. 

CHARLES    MORRIS. 


BOOKS 

From  which  the  author  has  obtained  information. 


Anacalypsis G.  Higgins,  F.R.A.S. 

An  Analysis  of  Egyptian  Mythology     .  /.  C.  Pritchard,  M.D. 

An  Analysis  of  the  Historical  Records 

of  Ancient  Egypt J.  C.  Pritchard,  M.D. 

An  Analysis  of  Religious  Belief  .     .     .  Viscount  Amberly. 

Ancient  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Soc- 
rates Scholasticus Trans,   by    J.    Ham- 
mer, D.D. 

Ancient  Egypt  under  the  Pharaohs  .     .  John  Kenrick,  M.A. 

Ancient  Faiths  and  Modern     ....  Thomas  Inman,  M.D. 

Ancient   Faiths   embodied   in    Ancient 

Names Thomas  Inman,  M.D. 

Ancient  Pagan  and  Modern   Christian 

Symbolism Thomas  Inman,  M.D. 

Ancient  Symbol  Worship H.  M.  Westropp. 

Antiquities  of  Mexico Lord  Kingsborough. 

Antiquities  of  the  Jews Flavius  Josephus. 

Asiatic  Researches Asiatic  Society. 

Assyrian  Discoveries George  Smith. 

Bell's  New  Pantheon /.  Bell. 

Bible  Myths T.  William  Doane. 

Biographies  of  Words  and  the  Home 

of  the  Aryas Max  Miiller. 

Buddha  and  Early  Buddhism  ....  Arthur  Lillie. 

Buddhism J.  H.  Titcomb,  D.D. 


22 


Chips  from  a  German  Workshop      .     .  Max  Muller. 

Christianity    in    China,    Tartary,    and 

Thibet E.  R.  Hue. 

Cory's  Ancient  Fragments  of  the  Phoe- 
nician,     Carthaginian,      Babylonian, 

Egyptian,  and  other  Authors  .     .     .  Cory. 

Curious  Myths  of  the  Middle  Ages     .  Rev.  S.  Baring-Gould. 

Darwinism  in  Morals Frances  P.  Cobbe. 

Eastern  Monachism R.  Spence  Hardy. 

Egyptian  Belief  and  Modern  Thought  .  James  Bonwick. 

Egyptian     Mythology    and     Egyptian 

Christianity Samuel  Sharpe. 

Encyclopaedia  Britannica Ninth  edition. 

Evidence  as  to  Man's  Place  in  Nature  .  Thomas   H.    Huxley, 

F.RS.,  F.L.S. 

Fairy  Tales:  Their  Origin  and  Meaning  J.  T.  Bunce. 

Fusang Charles  G.  Leland. 

God  in  History C.  K.  von  fiunsen. 

Hebrew  and  Christian  Records   .     .     .  J.  A.  Giles. 

Hinduism Monier  Williams, M.  A. 

History    of    Ancient    Sanscrit    Litera- 
ture      Max  Miiller. 

History  of  China Thomas  Thornton. 

History  of  Cornelius  Tacitus  .     .     .     .  C.  Tacitus. 

History  of  Herodotus Herodotus. 

History  of  Hindostan Thomas  Maurice. 

History  of  our  Lord  in  Art      ....  Mrs.    Jameson      and 

Lady  Eastlake. 

History  of  the  Conflict  between  Religion 

and  Science J-  W.  Draper,  D  D 

History  of  the  Conquest  of  Mexico  ,     .  W.  H.  Prescott. 

History  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the 

Roman  Empire Edward  Gibbon. 

History  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Deity  of 

Jesus  Christ Albert  Reville. 


23 


India,  Ancient  and  Modern      ....  Rev.  D.  O.  Allen. 

India,  What  can  it  Teach  us?      ...  Max  Miiller. 

Indian  Antiquities Thomas  Maurice. 

Indian  Wisdom Monier  William s,AI.A, 

Koran Trans,  by  G.  Sale. 

Lectures  on  the  History  of  the  Jewish 

Church Dean  Stanley. 

Lectures  on  the  Origin  and  Growth  of 

Religion Max  Miiller. 

Lectures  on  the  Origin  and  Growth  of 

Religion P.  Le  Page  Renouf. 

Lectures  on  the  Pentateuch  and  Moab- 

ite  Stone J-  W.  Colenso,  D.D. 

Lectures  on  the  Science  of  Language  .  Max  Miiller. 

Life  and  Religion  of  the  Hindoos     .     .  J.  C.  Gangooly. 

Man's  Earliest  History Richard  Owen. 

Manual  of  Buddhism R.  S.  Hardy. 

Manual  of  Mythology Alex.  S.  Murray. 

Monumental  Christianity J-  P-  Lnndy. 

Mysteries  of  Adoni S.  F.  Dunlap. 

Mythology  among  the  Hebrews    .     .     .  Igjiaz  Goldziher. 

Mythology  of  Ancient  Greece  and  Italy  T.  Keightley. 

Mythology  of  the  Aryan  Nation  .     .     .  Sir  George  IV.  Cox. 

Myths  and  Myth-Makers John  Fiske. 

Myths  and  Rites  of  the  British  Druids  Edwin  J.  Davis. 

Myths  of  the  Middle  Ages Rev.  S.  Baring-Gould. 

Myths  of  the  New  World Daniel  Brinton. 

New  Researches  in  Ancient  History     .  C.  F.  Volncy. 

Northern  Antiquities P.  H.  Mallet. 

Oriental  Religions Samuel  Johnson. 

Persia Frederick  Shoberl. 

Prehistoric  Times Sir  John  Lubbock. 

Primitive  Culture Edivard Burnett Tylor. 

Prolegomena  of  the  History  of  Re- 
ligion        Albert  R  hi  lie. 


24 

Religions  of  India Auguste  Barth. 

Researches  into  the  Early  History  of 

Mankind E.  B.  Tylor. 

Rgya  Cher-rol-pa,  Thibetan  version  of 

the  Sanskrit  Lalita-vistara    ....  Foiicaux  {Ed.). 

Rig-Veda-Sanhita Max  Miiller, 

Roman  Antiquities C  K.  Dillaway. 

Sod,  the  Son  of  the  Man S.  F.  Dtmlap. 

Tales  of  Ancient  Greece Sir  George  W.  Cox. 

Taylor's  Fragments Charles  Taylor. 

The  Ancient  City F.  G.  Colanges. 

The  Angel -Messiah  of  Buddhists,  Es- 

senes,  and  Christians Ernest  de  Bunsen. 

The  Aryan  Race Charles  Morris. 

The  Celtic  Druids G.  Higgins,  F K.A.S. 

The  Chaldean  Account  of  Genesis  .     .  George  Smith. 

The  Chinese J.  F.  Davis. 

The  Christ  of  Paul George  Reber. 

The  Descent  of  Man Charles  Darwin. 

The  Devil :  his  Origin,  Greatness,  and 

Decadence Albert  Riville. 

The  Diogesis Robert  Taylor. 

The  Epistle  of   Polycarp   to   the    Phi- 

lippians Trans,  by  Wake. 

The  Essenes CD.  Ginsburg, LL.D. 

The  First  Book  of  Hermas      ....  Hernias. 

The  Gnostics  and  their  Remains  .     .     .  C  W.  King,  M.A. 

The  Gospel   of   the  Infancy  of  Jesus 

Christ Apocryphal. 

The  Great  Cities  of  the  Ancient  World  T.  A.  Buckley. 

The  Heathen  Religion J.  P.  Gross. 

The  Legend  of  Samson H.  Steinthal. 

The    Legends    and    Theories    of    the 

Buddhists R.  S.  Hardy. 

The  Life  of  Christ F.  W.  Farrar. ' 


25 


The  Life  of  Constantine Eusebms. 

The  Life  of  Jesus  Critically  Examined      David  Strauss. 

The  Light  of  Asia Edwin  Arnold. 

The  Lily  of  Israel VAbbe  Gerbet. 

The  Martyrdom  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  .     Dr.  I.  M  Wise. 

The  Origin  and   Development  of   Re- 
ligious Belief Rev.  S.  Baring-Gould. 

The  Origin  of  All  Religious  Worship  .     Charles  F.  Dupuis. 

The  Poems  of  iEschylus Tr.  by  R.  Potter,  M.A, 

The  Principles  of  Sociology    ....     Herbert  Spencer. 

The  Protevangelion    .......     Protevangelion  Apoc. 

The  Races  of  Man Oscar  Peschel. 

The  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Greeks    .    Septchenes. 

The  Religions  of  the  World  .     .     .     .     P'.  D.  Maurice. 

The  Rosicrucians H.  Jennings. 

The  Sacred  Anthology M.  D.  Conway. 

The  Science  of  Religion Max  Milller. 

The  Secret  of  the  East Felix  L.  Oswald. 

The  Serpent  Symbol E.  G.  Squire. 

The  Stratification  of  Language    .     .     .    Max  Miiller. 

The  Symbolical  Language  of  Ancient 
Art  and  Mythology R.  P.  Knight. 

The  Vishnu  Purana Trans,  by  H.  H.  Wilson, 

Travels  in*  Georgia,  Persia,  etc.  .     .     .    Sir  R.  K.  Porter. 

Tree  and  Serpent  Worship    ....    James  Fergusson,F.R.S. 

Types  of  Mankind S.  G.  Morton. 

Upani  shads Trans,  by  Max  Miiller. 

Vestiges  of  the  Spirit-History  of  Man    S.  F.  Dunlap. 


asiT 


ARYAN    SUN-MYTHS 
THE    ORIGIN    OF    RELIGIONS. 


The  results  obtained  from  the  examination  of  lan- 
guage in  its  several  forms  leaves  no  room  for  doubt, 
Max  Miiller  tells  us,  that  there  was  a  stage,  in  the 
history  of  human  speech,  during  which  the  ab- 
stract words  in  constant  use  among  ourselves  were 
utterly  unknown,  when  men  had  formed  no  notions 
of  virtue  or  prudence,  of  thought  and  intellect,  of 
slavery  or  freedom,  but  spoke  only  of  the  man  who 
was  strong,  who  could  point  the  way  to  others  and 
choose  one  thing  out  of  many,  of  the  man  who  was 
not  bound  to  any  other,  and  able  to  do  as  he 
pleased. 

Language  without  words  denoting  abstract  quali- 
ties implies  a  condition  of  thought  in  which  men 
were  only  awakening  to  a  sense  of  the  objects  which 
surrounded  them,  and  points  to  a  time  when  the 
world  was  to  them  full  of  strange  sights  and  sounds, 
—  some  beautiful,  some  bewildering,  some  terrific; 
when,  in  short,  people  knew  little  of  themselves  be- 
yond the  vague  consciousness  of  existence,  and 
nothing  of  the  phenomena  of  the  world  without. 

In   such  a  state  they  could  but  attribute  to  all 


28 


that  they  saw  or  touched  or  heard,  a  life  which  was 
Hke  their  own  in  its  consciousness,  its  joys,  and  its 
sufferings.  The  varying  phases  of  that  Hfe  were 
therefore  described  as  truthfully  as  human  feelings 
or  sufferings,  and  hence  every  phase  became  a  pict- 
ure, which  remained  intelligible  as  long  as  the  con- 
ditions remained  unchanged.  In  time,  however,  the 
conditions  were  changed.  Men  advanced  in  knowl- 
edge and  civilization,  and  no  longer  thought  of 
nature  as  possessing  life  and  consciousness  like 
their  own. 

In  ancient  times  there  lived,  it  is  supposed  on  the 
highest  elevation  of  Central  Asia,  a  noble  race  of 
men,  called  the  Aryan.  Speaking  a  language  not 
yet  Sanskrit,  Greek,  or  German,  but  containing  the 
dialects  of  all,  this  clan  which  had  advanced  to  a 
state  of  agricultural  civilization  had  recognized 
the  bonds  of  blood,  and  sanctioned  the  bonds  of 
marriage.  That  they  worshipped  Nature,  —  the 
sun,  moon,  sky,  earth,  —  a  comparison  of  ancient 
religions  and  mythology  in  the  lands  peopled  by 
Aryans^  demonstrates.  Their  chief  object  of  adora- 
tion was  the  Sun.  To  this  race,  in  the  infancy  of  its 
civilization,  the  Sun  was  not  a  mere  luminary,  but  a 
Creator,  Ruler,  Preserver,  and  Saviour  of  the  world. 

As  there  could  be  no  life  or  vegetation  without 
light,  the  Sun,  as  a  light-bringer,  becomes  Creator, 
and  if  Creator,  then  Ruler  of  the  world — the 
Father  of  all  things.  In  driving  away  the  dark- 
ness, and  likewise  in  fertilizing  the  earth,  the  Sun 


29 

becomes  the  preserver  and  kind  protector  of  all 
living  things— the  Saviour  of  mankind.  As  the  Sun 
sometimes  scorches  and  withers  vegetation  and  dries 
up  the  rivers,  he  was  conceived  of  as  a  Destroyer 
also.  As  Creator,  Preserver,  and  Destroyer  the  Sun 
was  three  persons  in  one  —  the  Trinity. 

It  is  very  hard  for  man  at  the  present  day  to  real- 
ize the  feelings  with  which  the  first  dwellers  on 
earth  looked  upon  the  Sun.  "  Think  of  man,"  says 
Professor  Miiller,  "at  the  dawn  of  time.  .  .  .  Was 
not  the  sunrise  to  him  the  first  wonder,  the  first  be- 
ginning to  him  of  all  reflection,  all  thought,  all  phi- 
losophy ?  Was  it  not  to  him  the  first  revelation,  the 
first  beginning  of  all  trust,  of  all  religion  ?  " 

The  Aryans  looked  up  to  the  sky  and  gave  it  the 
name  of  Dyaus,  from  a  root-word  which  means  to 
shine;  When,  out  of  the  forces  and  forms  of  nature, 
they  fashioned  other  gods,  this  name  of  Dyaus  be- 
came Dyaus  Pitar,  —  the  Heaven-Father,  or  All- 
Father.  The  earth  they  worshipped  as  the  Mother 
of  All. 

They  said  that  the  Sun  was  the  Son  of  the  Sky,  or 
the  Heaven-Father,  and  that  the  immaculate  virgin, 
the  Earth  (sometimes  it  was  the  dawn  or  the  night), 
was  the  Mother  of  the  Sun.  Hence  we  have  the 
Virgin,  or  Virgo,  as  one  of  the  signs  of  the  zodiac. 

As  the  Sun  begins  its  apparent  annual  northward 
journey  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  December,  this  day 
was  said  to  be  his  birthday,  and  was  observed  with 
great  rejoicings.     On  this  day  the  sign  of  the  Virgin 


30 

is   rising  on  the  eastern  horizon,  the   Sun  having 
reached  the  winter  solstice. 

The  division  of  the  first  decan  of  the  Virgin  rep- 
resents a  beautiful  immaculate  virgin  with  flowing 
hair,  sitting  in  a  chair,  with  two  ears  of  corn  in  her 
hand,  and  suckling  an  infant  called  lesus  (Jesus  in 
Latin),  by  some  nations,  and  Christ  in  Greek  (from 
the  Greek  Christos,  —  an  Anointed  One,  a  Messiah). 
This  infant  denotes  the  Sun,  which  at  the  moment 
of  the  winter  solstice,  precisely  when  the  Persian 
magi  drew  the  horoscope  of  the  new  year,  was  placed 
on  the  bosom  of  the  Virgin.     (See  Appendix  A.) 

The  zodiacal  sign  of  Aries  was  anciendy  known 
as  the  Lamb;  consequently,  when  the  Sun  made  the 
transit  of  the  equinox  under  this  sign,  it  was  called 
the  Lamb  of  God. 

The  birth  of  the  Sun  was  said  to  be  heralded  by  a 
star  —  the  Morning-star,  which  rises  immediately 
before  the  Virgin  and  her  Child.  As  the  Sun 
appears  to  start  from  a  dark  abode,  it  was  said  that 
he  was  born  in  a  cave,  or  dungeon,  and  the  splen- 
dor of  the  morning  sky  was  said  to  be  the  halo 
around  his  cradle.  As  the  Sun  scatters  the  dark- 
ness, it  was  said  that  he  would  be  the  destroyer  of 
the  reigning  monarch,  Night.  Warned  of  this  peril 
by  oracles,  Night  tries  to  prevent  the  birth  of  the 
Sun,  and,  failing  in  that,  seeks  to  take  his  life.  For 
this  reason  it  is  said  that  the  Sun  is  left  on  the  bare 
hillside  to  perish,  as  he  seemingly  rests  on  the  earth 
at  his  rising.     He   meets  with   temptations  on  his 


31 

course,  is  beset  by  foes,  clouds  of  storm  and  dark- 
ness; but,  in  the  struggle  which  ensues,  he  is  con- 
queror, the  gloomy  army,  broken  and  rent,  is  scat- 
tered. The  daughters  of  his  foes,  the  last  light 
vapors  which  float  in  the  heavens,  try  in  vain  to 
clasp  and  retain  him,  but  he  disengages  himself 
from  their  embraces  ;  and,  as  he  repulses  them,  they 
writhe,  lose  their  form  and  vanish.  Temptations  to 
sloth  and  luxury  are  offered  him  in  vain ;  he  has 
work  to  do,  and  nothing  can  stay  him  from  doing  it. 
He  travels  over  many  lands,  and  toils  for  the  benefit 
of  others  ;  he  does  hard  service  for  a  mean  and  cruel 
generation.  He  is  constantly  in  company  with  his 
Twelve  Apostles  —  the  twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac. 

As  he  approaches  midsummer,  he  appears  in  all 
his  splendor,  he  has  reached  the  summit  of  his 
career ;  henceforth  his  power  diminishes,  and  he 
meets  with  an  early  and  a  violent  death,  from  which 
there  is  no  escape.  When  the  extreme  southern 
limit  of  his  course  is  reached,  his  enemies  —  dark- 
ness and  cold,  which  have  sought  in  vain  to  wound 
him  —  win  the  victory.  The  bright  Sun  of  summer 
is  slain,  crucified  in  the  heavens,  and  pierced  by  the 
spear  (thorn,  or  arrow)  of  winter.  He  who  has  per- 
formed such  marvellous  miracles,  healing  the  sick 
and  raising  the  dead,  cannot  save  himself;  a  stern 
fate  decrees  that  he  must  die  an  ignominious  death. 

As  the  Sun  wakens  the  earth  to  life  after  the  long 
sleep  of  winter  is  passed,  it  was  said  that  he  raised 
the  dead.    He  is  crucified,  with  outstretched  arms  in 


32 

the  heavens,  —  outstretched  to  bless  the  world  he 
is  trying  to  save  from  the  terror  of  darkness,  —  to 
the  tree,  or  cross.  It  was  an  ancient  custom  to  use 
trees  as  gibbets  for  crucifixion,  or,  if  artificial,  to 
call  the  cross  a  tree,  the  tree  being  one  of  the  sym- 
bols of  nature-worship,  which  denoted  the  fructify- 
ing power  of  the  Sun.  The  Sun  crucified  was  the 
Sun  in  winter,  when  his  fructifying  power  is  gone. 

Before  the  Sun  dies  he  sees  all  his  disciples  — 
his  retinue  of  light,  the  twelve  hours  of  the  day  or 
the  twelve  months  of  the  year  —  disappear  in  the 
sanguinary  ;«^/^^  of  the  clouds  of  evening;  but  the 
tender  mother  and  the  fair  maidens  he  has  loved  — 
the  beautiful  lights  which  flush  the  eastern  sky  as 
the  Sun  sinks  in  the  west  —  remain  with  him  till 
the  last.  Their  tears  are  the  tears  of  dew.  At  his 
death  there  is  darkness  over  all  the  land.  He 
descends  into  Hell,  or  Hades.  In  ancient  times 
Hell,  or  Hades,  was  a  place  neither  of  reward  nor 
punishment,  but  was  simply  the  home  of  the  dead, 
good  and  bad  alike,  the  word  primarily  signifying 
nothing  more  than  the  hollow  grave,  hole,  pit,  cav- 
ern, or  other  receptacle  which  receives  the  dead. 
By  the  Aryans,  Hades  was  supposed  to  be  in  the  far 
west,  which  to  them  was  always  the  region  of  dark- 
ness and  death,  as  the  east  was  of  light  and  life. 
On  the  twenty-second  of  December  the  Sun  enters 
the  sign  Capricornus,  or  the  Goat,  and  appears  to 
remain  in  the  same  place  for  three  days  and  three 
nights,  and  then  begins  to  ascend.     This  was  said 


33 

to  be  the  resurrection  of  the  Sun  from  Hades  or  the 
grave.  At  the  vernal  equinox,  at  Easter,  the  Sun 
has  been  below  the  equator  and  suddenly  rises 
above  it.  It  rises  triumphant  over  the  powers  of 
darkness  and  cold.  The  resurrection  of  the  Sun 
was  generally  celebrated  on  the  twenty-fifth  of 
March,  when  the  return  of  spring  may  be  said  to  be 
the  result  of  the  return  of  the  Sun,  from  the  lower 
or  far-off  regions  to  which  it  had  departed. 

There  were  numerous  symbols  which  were  held 
as  sacred  to  the  Sun,  the  most  common  being  the 
fish,  the  lamb,  the  cross,  and  the  serpent.  The  Ser- 
pent was  an  emblem  of  the  Sun,  when  represented 
with  his  tail  in  his  mouth,  thus  forming  a  circle.  He 
was  an  emblem  of  eternity,  when  represented  as 
casting  off  his  skin ;  but  when  represented  with  his 
deadly  sting,  he  was  an  emblem  of  evil.  When 
represented  as  crucified  on  the  tree  (cross),  the  Ser- 
pent denoted  the  Sun  in  winter,  when  it  has  lost  its 
fructifying  power. 

The  Aryans  observed  various  rites  and  ceremonies, 
among  them  being  Baptism  and  the  sacrament  of  the 
Eucharist.  Indeed,  the  doctrine  of  Transubstanti- 
ation  is  one  of  the  most  ancient  of  doctrines.  Bap- 
tism was  held  to  be  a  regenerating  rite  ;  and  rivers, 
as  sources  of  fertility  and  purification,  were  at  an 
early  date  invested  with  a  sacred  character.  Every 
great  river  was  supposed  to  be  permeated  with  the 
divine  essence,  and  its  waters  held  to  cleanse  from 
moral  guilt  and  contamination. 


34 


The  doctrines  of  Original  Sin  and  the  Fallen 
Condition  of  Man  were  not  unknown  to  the  primi- 
tive Aryan,  who,  in  order  to  propitiate  his  gods, 
atone  for  sins,  or  avert  calamities,  offered  sacrifices 
to  them.  When  men  lived  mostly  on  vegetables, 
they  offered  grain,  salt,  fruits,  water,  and  flowers ; 
but  when  they  began  to  eat  meat  and  spices,  and 
drink  wine,  they  offered  these  also,  —  naturally  sup- 
posing that  the  gods  would  be  pleased  with  whatever 
was  useful  or  agreeable  to  men. 

In  the  course  of  time  it  began  to  be  imagined 
that  the  gods  demanded  something  more  sacred  as 
offerings,  or  atonements,  for  sin.  This  led  to  the 
sacrifice  of  human  beings,  at  first  of  slaves  and 
those  taken  in  war,  and  finally  of  their  own  children, 
even  their  most  beloved  and  first-born.  It  came  to 
be  an  idea  that  every  sin  must  have  its  prescribed 
amount  of  punishment,  and  that  the  gods  would 
accept  the  life  of  one  person  in  atonement  for  the 
sins  of  others.  From  this  arose  a  belief  in  the 
redemption  from  sin  by  the  sufferings  of  a  Divine 
Incarnation,  by  death  on  the  cross,  or  otherwise. 

Branches  of  the  Aryan  race  migrated  to  the  east 
and  to  the  west.  One  of  the  offshoots,  at  the  west, 
founded  the  Persian  kingdom;  another  built  Athens 
and  Lacedasmon,  and  became  the  Greek  nation  ;  a 
third  went  on  to  Italy,  and  reared  the  city  on  the 
seven  hills,  which  grew  into  imperial  Rome.  A  dis- 
tant colony  of  the  same  race  excavated  the  silver 
mines  of  prehistoric  Spain ;  and  the  first  glimpse  at 


35 

ancient  England  reveals  Aryan  descendants  fishing 
in  willow  canoes.  Germany  also  was  peopled  by 
the  Aryans.  Meanwhile  other  bands  of  Aryans 
had  gone  forth,  from  the  primitive  home  in  Central 
Asia,  to  the  seacoast.  Powerful  bands  found  their 
way  through  the  passes  of  the  Himalayas  into  the 
Punjab,  and  spread  themselves,  chiefly  as  Brahmans 
and  Rajputs,  over  India. 

Wherever  the  Aryans  went,  the  sun-myths  went  with 
them,  and  appeared  in  the  course  of  time,  after  their 
origin  was  forgotten,  as  the  groundwork  of  religions, 
epic  poems,  folk-lore,  and  nursery  tales.  Out  of 
these  myths  were  shaped  by  degrees  innumerable 
gods  and  demons  of  the  Hindoos ;  the  devs  and  jins 
of  the  Persians ;  the  great  gods,  the  minor  deities, 
the  nymphs  and  fauns  and  satyrs,  of  Greek  mythol- 
ogy and  poetry  ;  the  stormy  divinities,  the  giants  and 
trolls,  of  the  cold  and  rugged  north ;  the  dwarfs  of 
German  forests ;  the  elves  who  dance  merrily  in  the 
moonlight  of  an  English  summer ;  the  "  good  peo- 
ple "  who  play  mischievous  tricks  upon  stray  peasants 
among  the  Irish  hills;  fairies  and  gods  and  heroes. 

Almost  all  that  we  have  of  legend  comes  to  us 
from  our  Aryan  forefathers  —  sometimes  scarcely 
changed,  sometimes  so  altered  that  the  links  be- 
tween the  old  and  new  have  to  be  puzzled  out ;  but 
all  these  myths  and  traditions,  when  we  come  to 
know  the  meaning  of  them,  take  us  back  to  the  time 
when  the  Aryans  dwelt  together  in  the  high  lands 
of  Central  Asia ;  and  they  all  mean  the  same  things 


36 


—  that  is,  the  relation  between  the  Sun  and  the 
earth,  the  succession  of  day  and  night,  of  summer 
and  winter,  of  storm  and  calm,  of  cloud  and  tempest, 
of  golden  sunshine  and  bright  blue  sky. 

A  few  of  the  Aryan  nations  have  preserved  in 
their  ancient  poetry  some  remnants  of  the  natural 
awe  with  which  the  earlier  dwellers  on  the  earth  saw 
the  brilliant  sun  "slowly  rise  from  out  the  darkness 
of  the  night,  raising  itself  by  its  own  might  higher 
and  higher,  till  it  stood  triumphant  on  the  arch  of 
heaven,  and  then  descended  and  sank  down  in  its 
fiery  glory,  into  the  dark  abyss  of  the  heaving  and 
hissing  sea."  One  of  these  nations  is  the  Hindoo. 
In  the  hymns  of  the  Veda  the  poet  still  wonders 
whether  the  Sun  will  rise  again ;  and  asks  how  he 
can  climb  the  vault  of  heaven,  why  he  does  not 
fall  back,  why  there  is  no  dust  on  his  path. 

It  is  to  these  Vedic  hymns  —  written,  it  is  said, 
from  one  thousand  to  fifteen  hundred  years  before 
the  Christian  era  —  that  we  must  go  for  the  develop- 
ment which  changes  the  Sun  from  a  mere  luminary 
into  a  Creator,  Preserver,  Ruler,  and  Rewarder  of 
the  world  —  in  fact,  into  a  Divine  or  Supreme  Being. 
These  hymns  contain  the  germ-story  of  the  Virgin- 
born  God  and  Saviour,  the  great  benefactor  of  man- 
kind, who  is  finally  put  to  death,  and  rises  again  to 
life  and  immortality  on  the  third  day. 

In  the  Sanskrit  Dictionary,  compiled  more  than 
two  thousand  years  ago,  we  find  a  full  account  of  the 
incarnate  deity  Vishnu,  who  appeared  in  human  form 


37 

as  Crishna.  Vishnu,  being  moved  to  relieve  the 
earth  of  her  load  of  misery  and  sin,  came  down 
from  heaven,  and  was  born  of  the  virgin  Devaki,  on 
the  twenty-fifth  of  December.     (See  Note  i.) 

His  birth  was  announced  in  the  heavens  by  his 
star,  and  a  chorus  of  Devatas  celebrated,  with  song, 
the  praise  of  Devaki.  "  The  spirits  and  nymphs  of 
heaven  danced  and  sang;  and  at  midnight,  when 
the  Support  of  All  was  born,  the  clouds  emitted  low, 
pleasing  sounds,  and  poured  down  rain  of  flowers." 

Though  of  royal  descent  (he  was  of  the  Yadava 
line,  the  oldest  and  noblest  of  India)  he  was  born 
in  a  cave,  his  mother  being  on  a  journey  with  his 
foster-father,  on  their  way  to  the  city,  to  pay  his 
yearly  tribute  or  tax  to  the  king. 

At  Crishna's  birth  the  cave  was  brilliantly  illu- 
minated, and  the  faces  of  his  father  and  mother 
emitted  rays  of  glory. 

The  divine  child  was  recognized  by  cowherds, 
who  prostrated  themselves  before  him.  He  was 
received  with  divine  honors,  and  presented  with 
gifts  of  sandal-wood  and  perfumes.  Soon  after  his 
birth  he  was  visited  by  the  holy  prophet  Nared, 
who  had  heard  of  the  fame  of  the  infant.  Nared 
examined  the  stars,  and  declared  Crishna  to  be  of 
celestial  descent. 

Crishna's  foster-father  was  warned  by  a  heavenly 
voice  to  fly  with  the  child  to  Gokul,  across  the 
River  Jumna,  as  the  reigning  monarch,  Kansa, 
sought    his   life.       When   the    River     Jumna    was 


38 

reached,  the  waters  respectfully  retired  on  each 
side,  to  make  way  for  the  transportation  of  the 
child.  On  the  most  ancient  Hindoo  temples  are 
sculptured  representations  of  the  flight  at  midnight, 
with  the  infant  saviour  Crishna. 

In  order  to  destroy  Crishna,  Kansa  ordered  the 
massacre  of  all  the  male  infants  born  in  his  realm 
during  the  night  on  which  Crishna  was  born.  The 
story  of  the  slaughtered  infants  is  the  subject  of  an 
immense  sculpture  in  the  cave-temple  of  Elephanta. 
The  flat  roof  of  this  cavern-temple,  and  every  other 
circumstance  connected  with  it,  proves  that  its  origin 
must  be  referred  to  a  very  remote  epoch,  hundreds 
of  years  before  our  era. 

Crishna  was  preceded  by  Rama,  who  was  born  a 
short  time  before  his  birth  and  whose  life  was  also 
sought  by  Kansa. 

It  is  said  that  Crishna  astonished  his  teachers  by 
his  precocious  wisdom.  Various  miracles  are  related 
as  occurring  in  his  childhood,  some  of  them  being 
similar  to  those  related  of  the  childhood  of  Jesus 
Christ  in  the  Apocryphal  New  Testament. 

One  of  Crishna's  first  miracles,  in  his  maturity, 
was  the  healing  of  a  leper.  He  restored  the  maimed, 
the  deaf,  and  the  blind;  he  healed  the  sick  and 
raised  the  dead ;  he  supported  the  weak  against  the 
strong,  and  the  oppressed  against  the  powerful.  The 
Hindoo  sacred  books  teem  with  accounts  of  the 
miracles  he  performed.  The  people  crowded  his 
path  and  adored  him  as  a  god. 


39 

He  had  twelve  favorite  disciples  who  accompanied 
him  on  his  missionary  travels. 

At  one  time  a  poor  lame  woman  came  with  a  ves- 
sel filled  with  spices,  sweet-scented  oils,  sandal- 
wood, saffron,  civet,  and  other  perfumes,  and, 
making  a  sign  on  Crishna's  forehead,  poured  the 
contents  of  the  vessel  upon  his  head. 

He  was  in  constant  strife  with  the  Evil  One  in 
the  early  part  of  his  ministry ;  but  he  overcame  the 
Tempter,  and  is  represented  as  bruising  the  head  of 
the  serpent  and  standing  upon  him. 

"  He  was  the  meekest  and  best-tempered  of 
beings."  "  He  preached  very  nobly  and  sub- 
limely. He  was  pure  and  chaste  in  reality ;  and,  as 
a  lesson  of  humility,  he  even  condescended  to  wash 
the  feet  of  the  Brahmans." 

Crishna  had  a  beloved  disciple,  Arjuna,  before 
whom  he  was  transfigured,  and  to  whom  he  said  : 
"  Whate'er  thou  dost  perform,  whate'er  thou  eatest, 
whate'er  thou  givest  to  the  poor,  whate'er  thou 
offerest  in  sacrifice,  whate'er  thou  doest  as  an  act 
of  holy  presence,  do  all  as  if  to  me,  O  Arjuna.  I 
am  the  great  Sage,  without  beginning;  I  am  the 
Ruler  and  the  All-sustainer." 

Again  he  said  :  "  Then  be  not  sorrowful ;  from  all 
thy  sins  I  will  deliver  thee.  Think  thou  on  me, 
have  faith  in  me,  adore  and  worship  me,  and  join 
thyself  in  meditation  to  me  ;  thus  shalt  thou  come  to 
me,  O  Arjuna ;  thus  shalt  thou  rise  to  my  supreme 
abode,   where   neither  sun  nor  moon  hath  need  to 


40 


shine,  for  know  that  all  the  lustre  they  possess  is 
mine."  "  I  am  the  cause  of  the  whole  universe ; 
through  me  it  is  created  and  dissolved ;  on  me  all 
things  within  it  hang  and  suspend,  like  pearls  upon 
a  string."  *'  I  am  the  light  in  the  sun  and  moon,  far, 
far  beyond  the  darkness.  I  am  the  brilliancy  in 
flame,  the  radiance  in  all  that's  radiant,  and  the 
light  of  Rghts."  "I  am  the  sustainer  of  the  world, 
its  friend  and  Lord  ;  I  am  its  way  and  refuge."  "  I 
am  the  Goodness  of  the  good ;  I  am  Beginning, 
Middle,  End,  Eternal  Time,  the  Birth,  the  Death  of 
All." 

Crishna  was  crucified,  and  is  represented  with 
arms  extended,  hanging  on  a  cross,  the  nail-prints 
being  visible  in  hands  and  feet,  and  with  the  spear- 
wound  in  his  side.  One  account  speaks  of  him  as 
having  been  shot  in  the  foot  with  an  arrow,  by  a 
hunter,  who  afterwards  says  to  him :  "  Have  pity 
upon  me,  who  am  consumed  by  my  crime,  for  thou 
art  able  to  consume  me."  Crishna  replies :  "  Fear 
not  thou  in  the  least.  Go,  hunter,  through  my 
favor,  to  heaven,  the  abode  of  the  gods." 

Crishna  descended  into  Hell.  In  three  days  he 
rose  from  the  dead  and  ascended  bodily  into  heaven. 
All  men  saw  him,  and  exclaimed,  "  Lo !  Crishna's 
soul  ascends  his  native  skies !  " 

At  his  death  there  came  calamities  and  omens  of 
every  kind.  A  black  circle  surrounded  the  moon,  the 
sun  was  darkened  at  noonday ;  the  sky  rained  fire 
and  ashes  ;  flames  burned  dusky  and  livid  ;   demons 


41 

committed  depredations  on  earth  ;  at  sunrise  and 
sunset  thousands  of  figures  were  seen  skirmishing 
in  the  sky,  and  spirits  were  observed  on  all  sides. 

Crishna  was  the  second  person  in  the  Hindoo 
Trinity,  "the  very  supreme  Brahma;  though  it  be  a 
mystery  how  the  Supreme  should  assume  the  form 
of  man." 

Vishnu  is  to  come  again  on  earth,  in  the  latter 
days,  and  will  appear  as  an  armed  warrior,  riding  a 
winged  white  horse.  At  his  approach  the  sun  and 
moon  will  be  darkened,  the  earth  will  tremble,  and 
the  stars  fall  from  the  firmament.  He  is  to  be 
Judge  of  the  dead,  at  the  last  day. 

Devaki,  the  virgin  mother  of  Crishna,  was  also 
called  Aditi,  which,  in  the  Rig-  Veda,  is  the  name  for 
the  Dawn.  Thus  the  legend  is  explained.  Devaki 
is  Aditi ;  Aditi  is  the  Dawn  ;  the  Dawn  is  the  Virgin 
Mother ;  and  the  Saviour  of  mankind,  who  is  born 
of  Aditi,  is  the  Sun.  Indra,  worshipped  in  some 
parts  of  India  as  a  crucified  god,  is  represented  in 
the  Vedic  hymns  as  the  son  of  Dahana,  who  is 
Daphne,  a  personification  of  the  dawn. 

As  the  Sun  and  all  the  solar  deities  rise  in  the  east, 
it  is  no  cause  of  wonder  that  Aditi,  the  Dawn,  came 
to  be  called  the  Mother  of  the  Bright  Gods,  the 
Virgin  Mother  who  gave  Birth  to  the  Sun,  the 
Mother  with  Powerful,  Terrible,  with  Royal  Sons. 

Statues  of  Crishna  are  to  be  found  in  the  very 
oldest  cave-temples  throughout  India,  and  it  has 
been   proved  satisfactorily,   on   the   authority  of   a 


42 


passage  of  Arrian,  that  the  worship  of  Crishna  was 
practised  in  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great,  in  a 
temple  which  still  remains  one  of  the  jnost  famous 
in  India, — that  of  Mathura,  on  the  Jumna  River. 

Crishna  was  deified  about  the  fourth  century  B.  C, 
but  the  general  outline  of  his  history  began,  we  are 
told,  with  the  time  of  Homer,  nine-hundred  years 
B.  C,  or  more  than  a  hundred  years  before  Isaiah  is 
said  to  have  lived  and  prophesied.  From  the  date 
of  the  second  century  before  our  era,  the  story  of 
Crishna  was  the  subject  of  dramatic  representations 
similar  to  those  connected  with  the  festivals  held  in 
honor  of  Bacchus. 

The  myths  which  crystallized  around  the  name  of 
Crishna  are  found  in  the  very  earliest  Vedic  literature, 
associated  with  other  gods.  Indeed,  the  Hindoos 
have  had  twenty-four  Avatars,  or  Divine  Incarna- 
tions. "  Every  time,"  as  Vishnu  is  represented  as 
saying  in  the  Bhagavad  Gita  (the  Song  of  the  Most 
High),  "that  religion  is  in  danger  and  that  iniquity 
triumphs,  I  issue  forth  for  the  defence  of  the  good 
and  the  suppression  of  the  wicked ;  for  the  establish- 
ment of  justice  I  manifest  myself  from  age  to  age." 
The  incarnation  of  Vishnu  is  not  a  transitory  mani- 
festation of  the  deity,  but  the  presence,  at  once 
mystic  and  real,  of  the  Supreme  Being  in  a  human 
individual,  who  is  both  truly  God  and  truly  man ; 
and  this  intimate  union  of  the  two  natures  is  con- 
ceived of  as  surviving  the  death  of  the  individual  in 
whom  it  was  realized. 


43 

Crishna  had  the  titles  of  Saviour,  Redeemer,  Pre- 
server, Comforter,  and  Mediator.  He  was  called 
the  Resurrection  and  the  Life,  the  Lord  of  Lords,  the 
Great  God,  the  Holy  One,  the  Good  Shepherd. 

The  Evil  One,  the  Serpent,  or  Satan,  who  figures 
so  conspicuously  in  the  sun-myths,  is  simply  the  dark 
and  stormy  cloud  —  the  enemy  of  the  Sun  —  person- 
ified, the  Hindoo  Rakshasas  of  our  Aryan  ancestors. 
The  cloudy  shape  has  assumed  a  thousand  different 
forms,  horrible  or  grotesque  and  ludicrous,  to  suit 
the  changing  fancies  of  the  ages.  ■  The  god  of  one 
nation  became  the  devil  of  another. 

The  word  devil^  when  traced  to  its  primitive 
source,  is  found  to  be  a  name  of  the  Supreme  Being. 
The  Aryan  Bhaga  (Persian,  Baga),  who  is  described 
in  a  commentary  of  the  Rig-  Veda  as  the  Lord  of  Life, 
the  Giver  of  Bread,  and  the  Bringer  of  Happiness, 
has  become  the  Bogie,  or  Bug-a-boo,  or  Bugbear,  of 
nursery  lore.  The  same  name  which  suggests  the 
supreme  majesty  of  deity,  to  the  Vedic  poet,  to  the 
Persian  of  the  time  of  Xerxes,  and  to  the  modern 
Russian,  is  in  English  associated  with  an  ugly  and 
ludicrous  fiend. 

The  Hindoos  held  that  there  is  a  subtile,  invisible 
body  within  the  material  body.  They  represent  the 
constitution  of  man  as  consisting  of  three  principles : 
the  soul,  the  invisible  body,  and  the  material  body. 
The  invisible  body  they  call  the  ghost  or  shade,  and 
consider  it  as  the  material  portion  of  the  soul. 

It  appears  that  thinking  men,  while  as  yet  on  a  low 


44 

level  of  culture,  were  deeply  impressed  by  two  groups 
of  biological  problems.  In  the  first  place  :  What  is 
it  that  makes  the  difference  between  a  living  and  a 
dead  person?  What  causes  waking,  sleep,  trance, 
disease,  death  ?  In  the  second  place :  What  are 
those  human  shapes  which  appear  in  dreams  and 
visions  ?  "  Looking  at  the  two  groups  of  phenom- 
ena, the  ancient  savage  philosophers,"  says  Edward 
Burnett  Tylor,  "practically  made  each  help  to 
account  for  the  other,  by  combining  both  in  a  con- 
ception which  we  may  call  an  apparitional-soul, 
a  ghost-soul."  To  the  savage,  dreams  possess  a 
reality  which  a  civilized  man  can  scarcely  appre- 
ciate. During  sleep  the  spirit  seems  to  desert  the 
body ;  and  as  in  dreams  other  localities  and  even 
other  worlds  appear  to  be  visited,  a  part  of  the 
person  seems  to  the  savage  to  possess  a  separate 
existence.  The  savage  believes  the  events  in  his 
dreams  to  be  as  real  as  those  of  his  waking  hours, 
and  hence  he  naturally  feels  that  he  has  a  spirit 
which  can  quit  the  body. 

The  Hindoos  believe  in  a  Triune  God :  Brahma, 
the  Father;  Vishnu,  the  Son;  and  Siva,  the  De- 
stroyer.    (See  Note  2.) 

As  man  advanced  in  knowledge,  and  became 
aware  of  the  fact  that  the  Sun,  although  he  appears 
to  destroy,  does  not  in  reality,  but  reconstructs  and 
regenerates  the  earth,  the  third  person  of  the  Trinity 
was  said  to  be  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  was  symbolized 
by  the   dove.     The    second   person    of  the  Trinity 


45 

came  to  be  called  the  Word,  —  wisdom,  or  Logos, 
in  the  Greek. 

Brahmanism  from  the  very  earliest  times  had  its 
initiatory  rites,  which  included  baptism  both  by  im- 
mersion and  sprinkling.  Infant  baptism  was  prac- 
tised, the  sign  of  the  cross  being  used,  and  a  name 
being  given  to  the  child  at  that  time.  The  symbols 
held  as  sacred  by  the  Brahmans  —  the  cross,  ser- 
pent, dove,  mitre,  crosier,  triangle,  tripod,  trefoil, 
key,  fish,  and  sacred  heart,  —  are  now  venerated 
by  Christians,  while  the  teachings  of  Brahmanism 
are  very  similar  to  the  familiar  teachings  of  the  New 
Testament.  The  following  precepts  are  from  Mahab- 
harata,  an  Indian  epic  poem,  written  many  centuries 
before  the  Christian  era  :  — 

Conquer  a  man  who  never  gives  by  gifts;  sub- 
due an  untruthful  man  by  truthfulness ;  vanquish  an 
angry  man  by  gentleness ;  and  overcome  the  evil 
man  by  goodness. 

To  injure  none  by  thought  or  word  or  deed,  to 
give  to  others  and  be  kind  to  all  —  this  is  the  con- 
stant duty  of  the  good.  High-minded  men  delight 
in  doing  good,  without  a  thought  of  their  own  inter- 
est; when  they  confer  a  benefit  on  others,  they 
reckon  not  on  favors  in  return. 

Two  men  will  hereafter  be  exalted  above  the 
heavens  —  the  man  with  boundless  power,  who  yet 


46 

forbears  to  use  it  indiscreetly,  and  he  who  is  not 
rich,  and  yet  can  give. 

Just  heaven  is  not  so  pleased  with  costly  gifts, 
offered  in  hopes  of  future  recompense,  as  with  the 
merest  trifle  set  apart  from  honest  gains  and  sancti- 
fied by  faith. 

To  curb  the  tongue,  and  moderate  the  speech,  is 
held  to  be  the  hardest  of  all  tasks.  The  words  of 
him  who  talks  too  volubly  have  neither  substance 
nor  variety. 

Even  to  foes,  who  visit  us  as  guests,  due  hospi- 
tality should  be  displayed  ;  the  tree  screens  with  its 
leaves  the  man  who  fells  it. 

Before  infirmities  creep  o'er  thy  flesh,  before  de- 
cay impairs  thy  strength  and  mars  the  beauty  of  thy 
limbs,  —  before  the  Ender,  whose  charioteer  is  Sick- 
ness, iiastes  towards  thee,  breaks  up  thy  fragile 
frame,  and  ends  thy  life,  —  lay  up  the  only  treasure  ; 
do  good  deeds ;  practise  sobriety  and  self-control ; 
amass  that  wealth  which  thieves  cannot  abstract,  nor 
tyrants  seize,  which  follows  thee  at  death,  which 
never  wastes  away  nor  is  corrupted. 

This  is  the  sum  of  all  true  righteousness :  treat 
others  as  thou  wouldst  thyself  be  treated.  Do  noth- 
ing to  thy  neighbor  which  hereafter  thou  wouldst 
not  have  thy  neighbor  do  to  thee.     In  causing  pleas- 


-47 

ure  or  in  giving  pain,  in  doing  good  or  injury  to 

others,   in  granting  or  refusing  a   request,   a  man 

obtains  a  proper  rule  of  action,  by  looking  on  his 
neighbor  as  himself. 

Among  the  most  ancient  traditions  of  the  Hin- 
doos is  that  of  the  Tree  of  Life,  —  called  Sbma,  in 
Sanskrit,  —  the  juice  of  which  imparted  immor- 
tality.    This  tree  was  guarded  by  spirits. 

They  had  a  legend  of  Paradise  which  reads  as 
follows :  — 

In  the  sacred  mountain  Meru,  which  is  perpetu- 
ally clothed  in  the  golden  rays  of  the  Sun,  and 
whose  lofty  summit  reaches  into  heaven,  no  sinful 
man  can  exist.  It  is  guarded  by  a  dreadful  dragon. 
It  is  adorned  with  many  celestial  plants  and  trees, 
and  is  watered  hy  four  rivers,  which  thence  separate 
and  flow  to  the  four  chief  directions. 

In  the  Genesis  account  it  is  cherubira"  who 
guarded  the  Garden  of  Eden,  and  they  were  sup- 
posed to  be  angels ;  but  we  are  told,  by  a  recent 
writer,  that  the  cherub  is  not  an  angel  but  an  ani- 
mal, and  a  mythological  animal,  at  that.  The 
cherub  had  the  body  of  a  lion,  sometimes  the  head 
of  another  animal  or  of  a  man,  and  the  wings  of  a 
bird.  The  cherub  that  was  placed  at  the  Garden  of 
Eden,  to  keep  the  way  of  life  was  simply  a  dragon. 

Origen  believed  aright,  as  it  is  now  almost  uni- 
versally   admitted,  that  the  stories  of   the  Garden 


48 

of  Eden,  the  Elysian  Fields,  the  Garden  of  the 
Blessed,  —  which  were  the  abode  of  the  blessed, 
where  grief  and  sorrow  could  not  approach  them, 
where  plague  and  sickness  could  not  touch  them, 
—  were  founded  on  allegory.  These  abodes  of 
delight  were  far  away  in  the  west,  where  the  Sun 
goes  down  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  earth.  They 
were  the  Golden  Islands,  sailing  in  a  sea  of  blue  — 
the  burnished  clouds  floating  in  the  pure  ether.  In  a 
word,  the  Elysian  Fields  are  the  clouds  at  even-tide,  the 
picture  being  suggested  by  the  images  drawn  from 
the  phenomena  of  sunset  and  twilight. 

The  Hindoo  legend  of  the  Creation  is  that  Siva, 
as  the  Supreme  Being,  desired  to  tempt  Brahma 
(who  had  taken  human  form,  and  was  called  Sway- 
ambhura  —  Son  of  the  Self -existent),  and  for  this 
reason  he  dropped  from  heaven  a  blossom  of  the 
sacred  fig-tree.  Swayambhura,  instigated  by  his 
wife  Satarupa,  endeavors  to  obtain  this  blossom, 
thinking  its  possession  will  render  him  immortal 
and  divine  ;  but  when  he  has  succeeded  in  doing 
so,  he  is  cursed  by  Siva,  and  doomed  to  misery  and 
degradation.  The  sacred  Indian  fig-tree  is  endowed 
by  both  the  Brahmans  and  the  Buddhists  with  mys- 
terious significance,  as  the  Tree  of  Knowledge,  or 
Intelligence. 

The  Hindoos  have  an  account  of  a  Deluge  simi- 
lar to  the  account  contained  in  Genesis,  also  an 
account  of  the  Babel  Confusion  of  Tongues. 

They  have   a  legend   that   corresponds    to    the 


49 


Hebrew  account  of  Abraham  and  Isaac,  and  sev- 
eral accounts  of  seas  and  rivers  being  divided,  as 
the  Red  Sea  was  said  to  be  divided,  for  Moses  and 
the  Israelites  to  pass  through. 

They  also  had  their  Samson,  whose  name  was 
Bala-Rama,  the  Strong  Rama.  He  was  worshipped 
at  Mutra  conjointly  with  Crishna ;  and  the  two 
were  considered  as  one  avatar,  or  incarnation  of 
Vishnu,  Vishnu  being  the  Sun. 

The  Hindoo  story  of  Saktideva,  who  was  swallowed  _ 
by  a  huge  fish  and  came  out  unhurt,  is  similar  to  the 
Hebrew  account  of  Jonah  swallowed  by  the  whale,  . 
which  is  undoubtedly  a  sun-myth,   and  represents  ' 
the  Sun  being  swallowed  up  by  the  earth,  —  as  it 
apparently  is  when  it  sets  in  the  west,  —  to  be  cast 
forth  by  the  earth  again  in  the  morning.     One  of 
the  names  given  to  the  Sun  was  Jona,  and  the  earth 
is  sometimes  represented  in  mythology  as  a  huge 
fish.     The  three  days  and  three  nights,  mentioned 
in  the  account,  represent  the  Sun  at  the  winter  sol- 
stice, when  it  is  apparently  stationary  for  that  length 
of  time  in  the  sign  Capri cornus. 

The  Hindoo  sacred  writings  relate  many  accounts 
of  their  Holy  Ones  being  taken  up  alive  into  heaven, 
as  the  Hebrew  Elisha  was  taken,  and  impressions 
on  rocks  are  shown,  as  their  footprints  which  last 
touched  the  earth. 

Arresting  the  course  of  the  Sun,  as  Joshua  is  said 
to  have  done,  was  a  c6mmon  thing  among  the  dis- 
ciples of  Buddha.     A  holy  Buddhist,  by  the  name 
4 


50 

of  Matanga,  prevented  the  Sun,  at  his  command, 
from  rising,  and  bisected  the  moon.  An  Indian 
fable  relates  that  the  Sun  stood  still  to  hear  the 
pious  ejaculations  of  Arjuna,  after  the  death  of 
Crishna. 

The  Hindoos  also  have  a  fable  which  corresponds 
to  the  account  of  Pharaoh's  two  dreams. 

The  sun-myths  finally  came  to  be  interwoven  with 
the  histories  of  eminent  men,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
Sakya  Prince  Siddhartha,  afterwards  called  Buddha 
(the  Enlightened  One),  who,  the  legend  says,  "left 
Paradise,  and  in  mercy  came  down  to  earth,  because 
he  was  filled  with  compassion  for  the  sins  and  mis- 
eries of  mankind.  He  sought  to  lead  them  in  bet- 
ter paths,  and  took  their  sufferings  upon  himself, 
that  he  might  expiate  their  crimes,  and  mitigate  the 
punishment  they  must  otherwise  inevitably  endure." 

Buddha's  Incarnation  is  said  to  have  been  accom- 
plished through  the  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Before  his  birth  a  heavenly  messenger  appeared  in  a 
dream  to  his  virgin  mother,  Maha-Maya,  and  said : 
"Behold,  thou  Shalt  bring  forth  a  son  bearing  the 
mystic  signs  of  Buddha,  a  scion  of  royal  lineage,  a 
son  of  highest  kings.  When  he  shall  leave  his 
kingdom  and  his  country  to  enter  the  state  of  devo- 
tion, he  shall  become  a  sacrifice  for  the  dwellers  of 
earth,  a  Buddha  who  to  all  men  shall  give  joy  and 
the  glorious  fruits  of  immortality."     (See  Note  3.) 

The  immortals  of  the  Tusita  -  heaven  decide  that 
Buddha  shall  be  born  when  the  Flower-star  makes 


51 

its  first  appearance  in  the  east.  At  his  birth  a  host 
of  angelic  messengers  descend  and  announce  tidings 
of  great  joy  :  "  A  hero,  glorious  and  incomparable, 
has  been  born,  a  saviour  unto  all  nations  of  the 
earth."     (See  Appendix  B.) 

Princes  and  wise  Brahmans  appear  and  worship 
the  child  Buddha.  The  Rishi,  Asita,  to  whom  the 
devas  had  revealed  the  miraculous  birth  of  Buddha, 
descends  from  his  shady  thicket,  dirghavardana,  to 
see  the  new-born  child,  and  predicts  Buddha's  mission 
to  save  and  enlighten  the  world. 

The  Abhinish-Kramana  Sutra  relates  that  the 
king  of  Maghada  instructed  one  of  his  ministers  to 
institute  an  inquiry,  whether  any  inhabitant  of  the 
kingdom  could  possibly  become  powerful  enough  to 
endanger  the  safety  of  the  throne.  Two  spies  are 
sent  out.  One  of  them  ascertains  the  birth  of 
Buddha,  his  tribe  and  dwelling-place,  and  the  prom- 
ise of  his  future  glory.  He  makes  his  report  to  the 
king,  and  advises  him  to  take  measures  to  extermi- 
nate the  tribe. 

Certain  elders  gave  council  to  the  king,  saying, 
"  Is  it  not  time,  O  Monarch,  that  the  infant  should 
be  presented  in  the  temple?"  A  magnificent  pro- 
cession accompanied  the  child  to  the  temple,  com- 
posed of  gods,  cloud  nymphs,  etc. 

Buddha's  parents  miss  the  boy  one  day ;  and  after 
searching  for  him  far  and  near,  they  find  him  in  an 
assembly  of  rishis  (sages  of  the  past)  who  listen  to 
his  discourses  and  marvel  at  his  understanding. 


Buddha,  before  entering  upon  his  mission,  meets 
the  Brahman  Rudraka,  a  mighty  preacher,  who, 
however,  offers  to  become  his  disciple.  Some  of 
Rudraka's  followers  secede  to  Buddha,  but  leave 
him  when  they  find  that  he  does  not  observe  the 
fasts. 

Buddha  retires  to  the  solitude  of  Uruvela,  and 
fasts  and  prays  in  the  desert  till  hunger  forces  him 
to  leave  his  retreat.  After  his  fast,  Buddha  takes 
a  bath  in  the  river  Neranjara.  When  he  leaves  the 
water,  purified,  the  devas  open  the  gates  of  Heaven, 
and  cover  him  with  a  shower  of  fragrant  flowers. 
During  Buddha's  fast  in  the  desert,  Mara,  the  Prince 
of  Darkness,  approaches  him  with  promises  of 
wealth  and  earthly  glory.  Buddha  rejects  his  offers, 
by  quoting  passages  of  the  Vedas.  The  tempter 
flees  ;  angels  descend  and  salute  Buddha. 

Buddha  has  frequent  interviews  with  two  buddhas 
who  had  preceded  him.  It  is  in  the  shade  of  the 
sacred  fig-tree  that  the  conversion  and  ordination  of 
Buddha's  first  disciples  take  place.  These  disciples 
were  previously  followers  of  Rudraka.  Before 
Buddha  appoints  a  larger  number  of  apostles,  he 
selects  five  favorite  disciples,  one  of  whom  is  after- 
ward styled  the  Pillar  of  the  Faith ;  another,  the 
Bosom  Friend  of  Buddha.  Among  the  followers  of 
Buddha  there  is  a  Judas,  Devadatta,  who  tries  to 
destroy  his  master,  and  meets  with  a  disgraceful 
death. 

Buddha    alludes    to    an    interview   with   several 


53 

former  Buddhas.  Sceptics  question  his  statement: 
''•  Only  forty  years  ago  you  left  your  native  town  : 
how  can  you  claim  to  have  seen  all  those  saints  of 
old  ? "  Buddha  explains  it  by  the  pre-existence  of 
his  soul. 

Buddha  walks  on  the  River  Ganges.  He  heals 
the  sick  by  a  mere  touch  of  his  hand ;  and,  accord- 
ing to  Wassiljew,  the  Mayana-Sutra  relates  the  mira- 
cle of  the  loaves  and  fishes.  Buddha  repeatedly 
has  a  miraculous  escape  from  the  snares  of  his 
adversaries.  "  But  he,  going  through  the  midst  of 
them,  went  his  way."  Once,  when  riding  on  his 
horse,  Kantaka,  his  path  was  strewn  with  flowers 
thrown  down  by  Devas.  Buddha  remains  homeless 
and  poor,  and  instructs  his  disciples  to  travel  with- 
out money,  trusting  to  the  aid  of  Providence.  At 
one  time  having  no  money  to  pay  a  boatman  who 
refuses  to  carry  him  without  pay,  Buddha  floats 
through  the  air  across  the  stream. 

To  convert  certain  sceptical  villagers  he  showed 
them  a  man  walking  across  a  deep  and  rapid  river, 
without  immersing  his  feet.  A  disciple  had  his  feet 
hacked  off  by  an  unjust  king,  and  Buddha  cured 
him.  At  his  appearance  the  sick  were  healed,  the 
deaf  cured,  and  the  blind  had  their  sight  restored. 

Even  his  disciples  performed  miracles.  The 
brother  of  one  of  them  being  in  imminent  danger 
of  shipwreck,  in  a  "black  storm,"  the  fact  was  made 
known  to  the  disciple  by  spirits,  and  he  at  once  per- 
formed the  miracle  of   transporting  himself  to  the 


54 


deck  of  the  ship,  when  immediately  the  black  tem- 
pest ceased.  Several  of  Buddha's  disciples  received 
power  to  exorcise  evil  spirits.  They  also  had  the 
gift  of  speaking  in  foreign  tongues. 

Some  of  the  followers  of  Buddha  being  impris- 
oned by  an  unjust  emperor,  an  angel,  or  spirit,  came 
and  opened  the  prison-door,  and  liberated  them. 

It  is  related  of  one  of  his  followers  that  his  eye 
offended  him,  and  that  he  plucked  it  out  and  cast  it 
away. 

One  day  Buddha's  disciple,  Ananda,  after  a  long 
walk  in  the  country,  meets  with  a  woman  of  the  low 
caste  of  the  Kandalas,  near  a  well,  and  asks  her  for 
some  water.  She  tells  him  what  she  is,  and  that  she 
must  not  come  near  him.  He  replies,  *'  My  sister,  I 
ask  not  for  thy  caste  or  thy  family ;  I  ask  only  for  a 
draught  of  water."  She  afterwards  becomes  a  dis- 
ciple of  Buddha. 

It  is  said  that  towards  the  end  of  his  life  Buddha 
was  transfigured  on  Mount  Pandava,  in  Ceylon. 
Suddenly  a  flame  of  light  descended  upon  him,  and 
encircled  the  crown  of  his  head  with  a  circle  of  light. 
His  body  became  "glorious  as  a  bright,  golden 
image,"  and  shone  as  the  brightness  of  the  Sun 
and  moon.  "  His  body  was  divided  into  three 
parts,  from  each  of  which  a  ray  of  light  issued 
forth." 

It  is  recorded,  in  the  sacred  canon  of  the  Buddh- 
ists, that  the  multitude  required  a  sign  from  Buddha, 
that  they  might  believe. 


55 

Buddha  delighted  in  representing  himself  as 
merely  a  link  in  a  long  chain  of  teachers. 

He  taught  his  disciples  to  hide  their  good  deeds, 
and  confess  their  sins  before  the  world,  —  to  love 
truth  and  hate  the  lie.  He  also  taught  that  all  men 
are  brothers,  that  charity  should  be  extended  to  all, 
even  to  enemies,  and  that  the  motive  of  all  actions 
should  be  pity  or  love  for  one's  neighbor.  His  dis- 
ciples were  told  that  they  must  renounce  the  world, 
give  up  all  their  riches,  and  embrace  poverty. 

In  the  Buddhist  Somadeva  is  the  following:  "To 
give  away  our  riches  is  considered  the  most  difficult 
virtue  in  the  world ;  he  who  gives  away  his  riches  is 
like  a  man  who  gives  away  his  life ;  for  our  very  life 
seems  to  cling  to  our  riches.  But  Buddha,  when  his 
mind  was  moved  by  pity,  gave  his  life  like  grass,  for 
the  sake  of  others." 

Buddha  is  reported  to  have  said  :  "  I  now  desire 
to  turn  the  wheel  of  the  excellent  law.  For  this 
purpose  am  I  going  to  the  city  of  Benares,  to  give 
light  to  those  shrouded  in  darkness,  and  to  open  the 
gates  of  immortality  to  man." 

When  his  career  on  earth  was  about  coming  to  a 
close,  he,  "  foreseeing  the  things  that  would  happen 
in  future  times,"  said  to  his  disciple  Ananda  :  "  When 
I  am  gone,  you  must  not  think  there  is  no  Buddha  ; 
the  discourses  I  have  delivered,  and  the  precepts  I 
have  enjoined,  must  be  my  successors,  or  represent- 
atives, and  be  to  you  as  Buddha." 

Again  he  said :  "  Though  the  heavens  were  to  fall 


56 

to  earth,  and  the  great  world  be  swallowed  up  and 
pass  away ;  though  Mount  Sumera  were  to  crack  to 
pieces,  and  the  great  ocean  be  dried  up,  yet,  Ananda, 
be  assured  the  words  of  Buddha  are  true." 

At  the  death  of  Buddha,  the  earth  trembled,  the 
rocks  were  split  and  phantoms  and  spirits  appeared. 
He  descended  to  hell  and  preached  to  the  spirits  of 
the  damned. 

When  Buddha  was  buried,  tne  coverings  of  the 
body  unrolled  themselves,  the  lid  of  his  coffin  was 
opened  by  supernatural  powers,  and  he  ascended 
bodily  to  the  celestial  regions.  Marks  on  the  rocks 
of  a  high  mountain  are  shown,  which  are  believed 
to  be  the  last  imprint  of  his  footsteps  in  this 
world. 

He  was  called  the  Lion  of  the  Tribe  of  Sakya,  the 
King  of  Righteousness,  the  Great  Physician,  the 
God  among  Gods,  the  Only  Begotten,  the  Word,  the 
All-wise,  the  Way,  the  Truth,  the  Life,  the  Inter- 
cessor, the  Prince  of  Peace,  the  Good  Shepherd,  the 
Light  of  the  World,  the  Anointed,  the  Christ,  the 
Messiah,  the  Saviour  of  the  World,  the  Way  of 
Life  and  Immortality.  Indeed  in  Ceylon  the  name 
of  Buddha  has  twelve  thousand  synonyms. 

When  the  time  came  for  him  to  depart,  he  told 
his  disciples  to  no  longer  remain  together,  but  to 
go  out  in  companies,  and  proclaim  the  doctrines  he 
had  taught  them,  —  to  found  schools  and  monasteries, 
build  temples,  and  perform  acts  of  charity,  —  that 
they  might  obtain  merit,    and   gain   access  to  the 


$7 

blessed  abode  of  Nigban,  which  he  told  them  he 
was  about  to  enter. 

The  ever-faithful  women  were  to  be  found  at  the 
last  scene  in  the  life  of  Buddha.  At  his  death 
one  of  his  disciples  found  the  master's  feet  soiled 
and  wet,  and,  asking  the  cause  of  it,  was  told 
that  a  weeping  woman  had  embraced  Gautama's 
feet  shortly  before  his  death,  and  that  her  tears  had 
fallen  on  his  feet  and  left  the  marks  there. 

After  his  death  Buddha  was  exalted  to  the  rank 
of  deity.  He  was  made  equal  to  Brahma ;  Demons 
were  powerless  against  his  word ;  angels  and  arhats 
ministered  unto  him. 

Buddha  taught  the  efficacy  of  vicarious  atonement ; 
a  hell  of  fire  and  ceaseless  torment ;  the  existence 
of  a  prodigious  number  of  malevolent  demons ;  the 
virtue  of  celibacy;  the  merit  of  seclusion  and  a 
retired  life;  the  rejection  of  ancient  rites  and  cere- 
monies ;  the  utility  of  self-sacrifice ;  the  vanity  of 
earthly  joys ;  the  demerit  of  wealth ;  the  deprecia- 
tion of  industry  and  the  pursuit  of  worldly  advan- 
tages ;  the  merit  of  mendicancy ;  the  merit  of  aban- 
doning wife  and  children  ;  love  of  enemies  ;  patience, 
submission,  and  self-denial ;  submission  to  injustice 
and  tyranny ;  the  sinfulness  of  scepticism  ;  auricular 
confession  of  sin,  and  the  worship  of  saints. 

Buddha's  mercy  is  compared  to  a  rain-cloud, 
which  showers  blessings  upon  the  just  and  unjust. 
Earthly  joys  are  compared  to  the  grass  which 
blooms  to-day,  and  to-morrow  is  cast  into  the  fire. 


58 

True  believers  are  advised  to  gather  treasures  which 
neither  thieves  can  steal  nor  fire  and  water  can 
spoil.  Ignorant  teachers  are  likened  to  the  blind 
leading  the  blind.  The  repentant  sinner  is  de- 
scribed in  a  parable  of  a  prodigal  son,  who  wastes 
his  substance  in  foreign  countries,  but  at  last  returns 
to  the  house  of  his  father,  where,  after  serving  as  a 
common  day-laborer,  the  son  is  pardoned,  and 
becomes  his  father's  chief  heir. 

The  new  religion  spread  extensively  all  over  the 
vast  continent  of  Hindostan;  and  finally,  about 
three  hundred  years  after  Buddha's  death,  found  an 
enthusiastic  and  powerful  convert  in  the  person  of  a 
king  called  Asoka.  This  ruler  was  imbued  with  a 
missionary  spirit,  and  under  his  influence  some 
eighty  thousand  missionaries  went  throughout  India, 
and  into  China,  Japan,  Ceylon,  Persia,  Babylonia, 
Syria,  Palestine,  Egypt,  —  to  that  very  populous 
and  important  emporium,  Alexandria.  Indeed,  they 
seem  to  have  gone  into  every  country  to  which 
ships,  caravans,  and  the  flow  of  commerce  gave 
them  access. 

Buddha's  representative  on  earth  is  the  Grand 
Lama,  the  high-priest  of  the  Tartars,  who  is  re- 
garded as  the  vicegerent  of  God.  The  Tartars 
have  oecumenical  councils,  monasteries,  nunneries, 
the  division  of  temples  into  a  nave  and  transept, 
pulpits,  dalmaticas,  bell-ringing,  incense,  the  censor 
suspended  from  five  chains,  chalices,  chaplets,  rosa- 
ries, chanted  services,  litanies,  aspersions  with  con- 


59     - 

secrated  water,  priests  with  shaven  polls  and  bare 
heads,  confession  of  sins,  prayers  for  the  sick, 
extreme  unction,  masses  and  sacrifices  for  the  dead, 
worship  of  relics,  weekly  and  yearly  fasts,  feast  of 
the  Immaculate  Conception,  Candlemas,  Baptism, 
the  Eucharist,  worship  of  one  God  in  Trinity  and  a 
belief  in  Heaven,  Hell,  and  Purgatory. 

Buddhism  is  supposed  to  have  been  more  exten- 
sively adopted  than  any  other  religion.  For  nearly 
two  thousand  four  hundred  years  it  has  been  the 
established  religion  of  Burmah,  Siam,  Laos,  Cam- 
bodia, Thibet,  Japan,  Tartary,  Ceylon,  Loo-Choo, 
and  many  neighboring  islands,  besides  about  two- 
thirds  of  China  and  a  large  portion  of  Siberia ;  and 
at  the  present  day  no  inconsiderable  number  of  the 
peasantry  of  Lapland  are  to  be  found  among  its 
adherents. 

Its  votaries  are  computed  at  four-hundred-mill- 
ions, more  than  one-third  of  the  entire  population 
of  the  world,  while  Hindooism  and  Buddhism  to- 
gether have  become  the  faiths  of  more  than  one- 
half  the  human  race,  and  have  spread  Aryan  theol- 
ogy and  culture  throughout  Asia,  to  the  utmost 
limits  of  China  and  Japan. 

The  Aryan  sun-myths,  as  has  been  mentioned, 
went  with  the  Aryans  when  they  peopled  Persia, 
and  became  the  religion  of  the  ancient  Parsees. 
Mithras  was  the  name  which  the  Persians  gave  to 
the  Sun.  After  ages  had  passed,  it  was  utterly  for- 
gotten that  Mithras  was  the  Sun,  and  it  was  believed 


6o 


that  he  was  the. Only  Begotten  Son  of  God,  who  had 
come  down  from  Heaven  to  be  a  mediator  between 
God  and  man,  to  save  men  from  their  sins.  The 
twenty-fifth  of  December  was  said  to  be  the  day  on 
which  this  God-man  was  born,  and  it  was  celebrated 
with  great  rejoicings.  The  legend  was  that  the 
wondrous  infant  was  visited  soon  after  his  mirac- 
ulous birth,  by  wise  men  called  magi,  who  brought 
gifts  of  gold,  frankincense,  and  myrrh.  It  was 
customary  for  the  magi  to  ascend  a  high  mountain, 
at  early  dawn  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  December,  and 
there,  with  their  faces  turned  to  the  east,  to  wait 
anxiously  for  the  first  rays  of  the  Sun,  which  they 
hailed  with  incense  and  prayer.  The  shepherds,  also, 
were  in  the  habit  of  prostrating  themselves  and  pray- 
ing to  their  god,  the  Sun.     (See  Note  4.) 

Mithras  was  said  to  be  the  Logos,  also  the 
Anointed,  or  the  Christ,  and  was  called  the  Lamb 
of  God.  His  worshippers  addressed  him  in  their 
litany,  constantly  repeating  the  words :  O  Lamb  of 
God!  that  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world,  have 
mercy  upon  us.  Grant  us  thy  peace.  It  was  be- 
lieved by  the  inhabitants  of  Persia,  Asia  Minor,  and 
Armenia  that  Mithras  had  been  put  to  death,  been 
three  days  in  Hell,  and  had  risen  again  from  the 
dead.  In  their  mysteries  was  exhibited  the  body  of 
a  young  man,  apparently  dead,  who  was  pres- 
ently restored  to  life.  His  disciples  watched 
his  sepulchre  till  midnight,  on  the  twenty-fourth  of 
March,  with  wailings  and  in  darkness,  when  sud- 


6i 


denly  the  place  would  be  brilliantly  illuminated,  and 
the  priest  would  cry :  Rejoice,  O  sacred  Initiated; 
your  God  is  risen.  His  death,  his  pains,  his  suffer- 
ings, have  worked  our  salvation.  Mithras's  symbol 
was  a  serpent. 

The  Mithrians  had  their  mysterious  meetings, 
their  chapels,  and  their  ceremony  of  initiation, 
which  included  Baptism  and  the  Eucharist.  The 
forehead  of  the  initiate  was  marked,  at  the  time  of 
baptism,  with  the  sign  of  the  cross.  Infants  also 
were  baptized,  —  for  the  purification  of  the  soul,  sin 
having  been  inherited,  —  a  name  being  given  to  the 
child  at  that  time.  The  ancient  Persians  believed 
that  they  were  tainted  with  original  sin,  owing  to 
the  fall  of  their  first  parents,  who  were  tempted  by 
the  Evil  One,  in  the  form  of  a  serpent.  Indeed, 
their  legends  of  the  Creation  —  of  Heden.^  the  origi- 
nal abode  of  man  —  and  the  River  of  Life,  are  almost 
identical  with  the  account  of  the  Creation  and  Gar- 
den of  Eden,  contained  in  Genesis.  They  had  a 
legend  of  a  Deluge,  and  also  a  legend  that  is  similar 
to  the  Hebrew  story  of  Jonah.     (See  Appendix  D.) 

The  story  of  the  War  in  Heaven  was  known  to 
them;  and  was  simply  a  myth,  which  represented 
the  conflict  between  day  and  night,  sunshine  and 
storm. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Millennium  was  familiar  to 
them,  —  a  time  when,  as  they  believed,  the  dead 
would  be  raised,  and  "the  sea  return  again  the 
remains  of  the  departed."     At  this  time  the  dead 


62 


were  to  be  judged  before  an  assembled  world,  and 
the  righteous  separated  from  the  wicked. 

These  doctrines  were  contained  in  the  Zend- 
Avesta  (the  Living  Word),  which,  judging  from  its 
language,  is  said  by  Professor  Miiller  to  be  older 
than  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  of  Cyrus  (B.C.  560). 
The  Persians  believe  that  Zoroaster,  the  founder  of 
their  religion,  received  this  Book  of  the  Law  from 
the  Lord,  in  the  midst  of  thunders  and  lightnings, 
as  he  prayed  one  day  on  a  high  mountain.  While 
the  King  of  Persia  and  the  people  were  assembled 
together,  Zoroaster  came  down  from  the  mountain 
unharmed,  bringing  with  him  the  Book  of  the  Law. 
The  points  of  resemblance  between  this  account  of 
the  Persians  and  the  later  account  of  the  Hebrew 
Moses,  —  bringing  the  Tables  of  the  Law  from 
Mount  Sinai,  —  are  very  striking. 

If  we  turn  to  the  Egyptians,  we  shall  find  that 
the  Aryan  sun-myths  became  the  foundation  of  their 
religion  also.  One  of  their  names  for  the  Sun  was 
Osiris.  The  facts  relating  to  the  incarnation,  birth, 
life,  and  death  of  Osiris  are  very  similar  to  those  in 
the  legends  of  the  Hindoo  and  Persian  sun-gods. 
It  was  said  that  he  was  born  on  the  twenty-fifth  of 
December,  and  that  he  was  the  son  of  Seb  and  Neith, 
or  Nut,  whose  common  appellation  was  the  Lady 
of  the  Sycamore.  At  the  birth  of  Osiris  a  voice 
was  heard  proclaiming,  "  The  Ruler  of  all  the 
earth  is  born."  Like  other  sun-gods,  he  met  with 
temptations    over    which    he    triumphed,    but    was 


63 


finally  conquered  by  his  foes.  At  the  annual  festi- 
val, in  early  spring,  which  commemorated  his  suffer- 
ings and  tragical  death,  there  was  a  species  of  drama, 
in  which  the  particulars  were  exhibited  with  loud  la- 
mentations. His  image  —  covered,  as  were  those  in 
the  temple,  with  black  veils  —  was  carried  in  a  pro- 
cession. The  Mourning  Song,  whose  plaintive  tones 
were  noted  by  Herodotus,  and  has  been  compared 
to  the  Miserere  sung  in  Rome,  was  followed  in 
three  days  by  the  language  of  triumph.  His  tomb 
was  illuminated,  as  is  the  Holy  Sepulchre  at  Jerusa- 
lem, and  for  thousands  of  years  it  was  the  object  of 
pious  pilgrimages.     (See  Note  5.) 

His  worship  was  universal  throughout  Egypt, 
where  he  was  gratefully  regarded  as  the  great 
exemplar  of  self-sacrifice,  in  giving  his  life  for  others, 
—  as  the  Manifester  of  Good,  as  the  Opener  of 
Truth,  —  and  as  being  full  of  goodness  and  truth. 
The  Egyptian  Book  of  the  Dead,  the  oldest  Bible  in 
the  world,  represents  him  as  "seeing  all  things, 
hearing  all  things,"  and  "  noting  the  good  and  evil 
deeds  of  men."  On  the  most  ancient  Egyptian 
monuments  he  is  represented  as  Judge  of  the  Dead, 
seated  on  his  throne  of  judgment,  bearing  a  staff, 
and  carrying  the  crux  ansata  (the  most  common 
form  of  the  cross)  with  the  St.  Andrew's  cross  on 
his  breast.  These  sculptures  were  contemporary 
with  the  building  of  the  pyramids,  which  were  built 
centuries  before  Abraham  is  said  to  have  been  born. 
Osiris  was  represented  with   the  trefoil  (the  leaf  of 


64 

the  Vila,  or  Bel-tree,  which  is  triple  in  form)  on  his 
head,  that  being  one  of  the  ancient  symbols  of  the 
f/iree-m-o/ie  mystery  —  the  Trinity.  As  second  per- 
son of  the  Trinity  he  was  called  the  Word.  In  one 
of  the  sacred  books  of  the  Egyptians  occurs  the 
following :  "  I  know  the  mystery  of  the  Divine 
Word ;  the  Word  of  the  Lord  of  All,  which  was  the 
maker  of  it."  "  The  Word  is  the  first  person  after 
himself,  —  uncreated,  infinite,  ruling  over  all  things 
that  were  made  by  him." 

The  monogram  of  Osiris  is  X  and  P  in  combina- 
tion, and  is  now  used  as  the  monogram  of  Jesus 
Christ.  His  symbol  is  the  serpent,  which  was  the 
earliest  symbol  of  Jesus,  centuries  later.  Among 
the  many  hieroglyphic  titles  which  accompany  the 
figure  of  Osiris  on  the  walls  of  temples  and  tombs 
are  Lord  of  Life,  Resurrected  One,  Eternal  Ruler, 
Manifester  of  God,  Full  of  Goodness  and  Truth. 

There  was  great  splendor  of  ritual  in  the  Egyp- 
tian religion,  including  gorgeous  robes,  mitres,  tiaras, 
wax  tapers,  processional  services,  and  lustrations. 
The  priests  wore  white  surplices,  and  were  shorn 
and  beardless.  There  were  also  sprinklings  of  holy 
water.  The  rite  of  Baptism  was  observed,  with  the 
sign  of  the  cross,  and  also  the  Eucharist,  —  the 
sacred  cake  being  eaten  after  it  had  been  conse- 
crated by  the  priest,  and  made  veritable  ^' flesh  of 
his  flesh."  The  sun,  moon,  and  five  planets  were 
each  of  them  assigned  a  day  of  the  week,  the 
seventh  day  being  Saturn's  Day,  and  kept  as  a  holy 


65 

day.  The  Immortality  of  the  Soul  was  believed  in 
and  was  a  very  ancient  doctrine ;  for  on  a  monu- 
ment thousands  of  years  old  is  the  epitaph  :  "  May 
thy  soul  attain  to  the  Creator  of  all  mankind." 
Like  the  Buddhists,  the  ancient  Egyptians  were 
familiar  with  the  War  in  Heaven  myth  and  the  Tree 
of  Life  myth. 

Neith,  the  mother  of  Osiris,  was  worshipped  as 
the  Holy  Virgin,  the  Great  Mother,  yet  an  Immacu- 
late Virgin.  There  was  a  grand  celebration  held 
in  her  honor,  called  the  Feast  of  Lamps,  which  has 
come  down  to  the  present  time  as  Candlemas  Day, 
or  the  Purification  of  the  Virgin  Mary. 

Horus,  another  Egyptian  name  for  the  Sun,  was 
said  to  have  been  born  of  the  immaculate  virgin 
Isis  (the  Moon),  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  December. 
On  this  day  the  effigy  of  the  infant  Horus,  lying  in  a 
manger,  was  exhibited  amid  great  rejoicings.  Being 
of  royal  descent,  his  life  was  sought  by  Typhon 
(darkness  or  night),  and  in  consequence  he  was 
brought  up  secretly  on  the  isle  of  Buto.  Like  other 
sun-gods,  he  was  tempted,  but  was  not  vanquished. 
He  is  represented,  in  Egyptian  art,  as  overcoming 
the  Evil  Serpent,  and  standing  triumphantly  upon 
him.  It  was  said  that  he  performed  many  miracles, 
among  them  the  raising  of  the  dead.  He  was  finally 
slain,  and  descended  into  Hell.  In  three  days  he 
rose  from  the  dead  and  ascended  into  Heaven.  His 
death  and  resurrection  were  celebrated  with  great 
pomp.  He  was  called  the  Royal  Good  Shepherd, 
5 


66 


Lord  of  Life,  Only-Begotten,  Saviour,  the  Anointed, 
or  the  Christ;  and  when  represented  as  Horus  Sneb, 
the  Redeemer.  He  is  generally  represented  as  an 
infant  in  the  arms  of  his  mother  Isis,  or  sitting  on 
her  knee ;  and  in  many  of  these  representations 
both  the  mother  and  child  are  black.  As  the  Sun 
seemingly  rests  on  the  earth  at  his  rising,  it  was  said 
that  he  was  sitting  in  the  lap  of  his  mother;  and  as 
the  earth  is  black,  or  dark,  before  the  rising  of  the 
Sun,  the  mother  and  child  were  represented  as 
black.     (See  Appendix  E.) 

The  most  ancient  pictures  and  statues,  in  Italy  and 
other  parts  of  Europe,  of  what  are  supposed  to  be 
representations  of  the  Virgin  Mary  and  the  infant 
Jesus,  are  black.  The  infant  god  in  the  arms  of  his 
black  mother,  with  white  eyes,  teeth,  and  drapery,  is 
himself  perfectly  black.  The  images  are  adorned 
with  jewels,  and  in  some  cases  the  Virgin  is  crowned 
with  a  triple  crown.  The  explanation  of  these 
early  representations  of  the  Virgin  Mary  and  infant 
Jesus,  — ^  black,  yet  crowned  and  covered  with  jewels, 
—  is  that  they  are  of  pre-Christian  origin  ;  they  are 
Isis  and  Horus,  —  and  perhaps,  in  some  cases,  De- 
vaki  and  Crishna,  —  baptized  anew.  In  many  parts 
of  Italy  are  to  be  seen  pictures  of  the  Holy  Family, 
of  great  antiquity,  the  groundwork  often  of  gold. 
These  pictures  represent  the  mother,  with  a  child  on 
her  knee,  and  a  little  boy  by  her  side.  The  Lamb 
is  generally  seen  in  the  picture.  They  are  inscribed 
Deo  Soli,  and  are  representations  of  Isis  and  Horus. 


67 

The  Deo  Soli  betrays  their  Pagan  origin.  Isis  was 
worshipped  in  Europe  as  well  as  Egypt,  for  centuries 
before  and  after  the  Christian  era.  She  was  wor- 
shipped as  the  Virgin  Mother,  and  styled  Our  Lady, 
Queen  of  Heaven,  Star  of  the  Sea,  Governess, 
Mother  of  God,  Intercessor.  It  is  related  that  Isis, 
being  at  one  time  on  a  journey,  came  to  the  River 
Phcedrus,  which  was  in  a  "  rough  air."  Wishing  to 
cross,  she  commanded  the  stream  to  be  dried  up, 
and  it  obeyed  her.  It  was  said  that  she  healed  the 
sick  and  gave  sight  to  the  blind.  Pilgrimages  were 
made  to  her  temples,  by  the  sick. 

Isis  was  represented  as  standing  on  the  crescent 
moon,  with  twelve  stars  surrounding  her  head ;  pre- 
cisely as  the  Virgin  Mary  is  now  represented  in  al- 
most every  Roman  Catholic  Church  on  the  conti- 
nent of  Europe.  She  was  also  represented  with  the 
infant  Horus  in  her  arms,  enclosed  in  a  framework  of 
the  flowers  of  the  Egyptian  bean,  the  sacred  lotus ; 
as  the  Virgin  Mary  was  afterwards  represented  in 
mediaeval  art. 

The  sun-myth  began  its  hold  upon  the  Egyptians 
more  than  five-thousand  years  ago,  when  men  trusted 
in  a  Risen  Saviour,  and  confidently  hoped  to  rise 
from  the  grave  as  he  had  risen. 

The  ancient  Egyptians  had  the  legend  of  the 
Tree  of  Life,  the  fruit  of  which  enabled  those  who 
ate  of  it  to  become  as  gods. 

The  Egyptian  records  contain  no  account  of  a 
cataclysmal  deluge,  the  land  apparently  never  having 


68 


been  visited  by  other  than  the  annual  beneficent 
overflow  of  the  Nile.  Indeed,  Pharaoh  Khoufou- 
cheops  was  building  his  pyramid,  according  to 
Egyptian  chronicle,  when  the  whole  world  was  under 
the  waters  of  a  universal  Deluge,  according  to 
Hebrew  chronicle.  The  Egyptians  have  no  account 
of  the  destruction  of  Pharaoh  and  his  army,  in  the 
Red  Sea,  or  of  the  other  circumstances  attending 
the  Exodus  from  Egypt.  We  find,  in  Egyptian  his- 
tory, that  at  one  time  the  land  of  Egypt  was  infected 
with  disease ;  and,  through  the  advice  of  the  sacred 
scribe  Phritiphantes,  the  king  caused  the  infected 
people  to  be  driven  out  of  the  country.  The  in- 
fected people  were  the  brick-making  slaves,  known 
as  the  Children  of  Israel,  who  were  infected  with 
leprosy.  "The  most  noble  of  them  went  under  Cad- 
mus and  Danaus  to  Greece,  but  the  greater  number 
followed  Moses,  a  wise  and  valiant  leader,  to  Pales- 
tine." 

Serapis  was  another  Egyptian  sun-god,  whose  fol- 
lowers were  called  Christians  and  Bishops  of  Christ. 

In  Grecian  fable  there  are  many  saviours. 

The  sun-god  Hercules,  son  of  Zeus  (the  sky)  and 
Alcmene,  was  born,  like  the  other  saviours,  on  the 
twenty-fifth  of  December  —  the  triple  night,  as  the 
Greeks  named  the  winter  solstice.  At  his  birth, 
Zeus,  the  God  of  gods,  spake  from  Heaven  and 
said :  "  This  day  shall  a  child  be  born,  of  the  race  of 
Perseus,  who  shall  be  the  mightiest  of  the  sons  of 
men."     While  an  infant  in  his  cradle,  Hera,  the  life- 


69 

long  foe  of  Hercules,  sent  two  serpents  to  strangle 
him,  but  he  killed  them.  The  position  of  the  spheres, 
on  the  twenty-fifth  of  December,  shows  the  zodiacal 
sign  of  the  Serpent,  aiming  at,  and  almost  touching, 
the  Virgin,  who  has  the  child  lesus  in  her  arms,  in 
the  constellation  Virgo.     (See  Appendix  F.) 

Hercules  was  said  to  have  been  swallowed  by  a 
huge  fish  (in  one  account  it  is  a  dag),  at  Joppa,  the 
place  where  the  Hebrew  Jonah  was  said  to  have  been 
swallowed  by  a  whale.  Hercules  remained  in  the 
fish  three  days  and  three  nights  (the  winter  solstice), 
and  came  out  unhurt,  with  the  exception  of  being 
shorn  of  his  locks.  The  Sun  is  shorn  of  his  locks  by 
winter.  An  abundance  of  hair  and  a  long  beard 
are  mythological  attributes  of  the  Sun,  denoting  its 
rays.     (See  Note  6.) 

Many  of  the  exploits  of  Hercules  are  similar  to  those 
accredited  to  the  Hebrew  Samson.  Samson's  death 
reminds  us  of  Hercules,  who  died  at  the  winter 
solstice,  in  the  far  west,  where  his  two  pillars  are 
set  up  to  mark  his  wanderings.  Samson  also  died 
at  the  two  pillars ;  but  they  were  not  the  Pillars 
of  the  World,  but  those  which  supported  a  great 
banqueting-hall,  and  a  feast  was  being  held  in 
honor  of  Dagon,  the  fish-god.  The  Sun  was  in  the 
sign  of  the  Waterman,  when  Samson,  the  sun-god, 
died.  Samson  was  one  of  the  names  of  the  Sun,  the 
name  signifying  the  sunny,  as  well  as  the  strong. 

Hercules  rose  from  the  funeral  pile  and  ascended 
into  heaven  in  a  cloud,  amid  peals  of  thunder.     At 


70 

his  death,  lola  (the  fair-haired  Dawn)  again  stands 
by  his  side,  cheering  him  to  the  last.  Then  once 
more  the  face  of  Hercules  flushed  with  a  deep  joy, 
and  he  said:  "Ah,  lola,  brightest  of  maidens,  thy 
voice  shall  cheer  me  as  I  sink  down  in  the  sleep 
of  death.  I  saw  and  loved  thee  in  the  bright 
morning-time;  and  now  again  thou  hast  come,  in  the 
evening^  fair  as  the  soft  clouds  which  gather  around 
the  dying  Sun.^* 

The  black  mists  were  spreading  over  the  sky ;  but 
still  Hercules  sought  to  gaze  on  the  fair  face  of 
lola,  and  to  comfort  her  in  her  sorrow.  "  Weep 
not,  lola,"  he  said ;  "  my  toil  is  done,  and  now  is 
the  time  of  rest.  I  shall  see  thee  again,  in  the 
bright  land  which  is  never  trodden  by  the  feet  of 
Night."  Then,  as  the  dying  god  expired,  darkness 
was  on  the  face  of  the  earth ;  from  the  high 
Heaven  came  down  the  thick  cloud,  and  the  din 
of  the  thunder  crashed  through  the  air. 

Hercules  was  said  to  be  self-produced,  the  Gener- 
ator and  Ruler  of  all  things,  and  the  Father  of  Time. 
He  was  called  the  Saviour,  and  the  words  Hercu- 
les the  Saviour  were  engraved  on  ancient  coins 
and  monuments.  He  was  also  called  the  Only- 
Begotten  and  the  Universal  Word.  He  was  said  to 
have  been  re-absorbed  into  God. 

The  story  of  Hercules  was  known  in  the  island  of 
Thasos,  by  the  Phoenician  colony  settled  there,  five 
centuries  before  the  Greeks  knew  of  it ;  yet  its 
antiquity   among   the  Babylonians   antedates   that. 


71 

He  is  identical  with  Izdubar,  the  Babylonian  lion- 
killer. 

The  ancient  Greeks  had  a  tradition  of  the 
Islands  of  the  Blessed,  the  Elysium,  on  the  bor- 
ders of  the  earth,  abounding  in  every  charm  of 
life,  and  the  Garden  of  the  Hesperides,  —  the  Par- 
adise, in  which  grew  a  tree  bearing  the  golden 
apples  of  Immortality.  It  was  guarded  by  three 
nymphs  and  a  serpent,  or  dragon,  the  ever-watch- 
ful Ladon.  It  was  one  of  the  labors  of  Hercules  to 
gather  some  of  these  Apples  of  Life.  When  he  ar- 
rived at  the  Garden,  he  found  it  guarded  by  a 
dragon.  Ancient  medallions  represent  a  tree  with 
a  serpent  twined  around  it.  Hercules  has  gath- 
ered an  apple,  and  near  him  stand  the  three 
nymphs,  called  the  Hesperides. 

The  sun-god  Dionysius  (Bacchus),  son  of  Zeus  and 
the  virgin  Semele,  daughter  of  Cadmus,  King  of 
Thebes,  was  born  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  December. 
As  he  was  destined  to  bring  ruin  upon  Cadmus,  he 
was,  by  the  order  of  that  monarch,  confined  in  a 
chest  and  thrown  into  the  Nile.  Like  Moses,  he 
was  rescued  and  adopted.  He  performed  many 
miracles,  among  them  being  the  turning  of  water 
into  wine.  He  had  a  rod  with  which  he  could  per- 
form miracles,  and  which  he  could  change  into  a  ser- 
pent at  pleasure.  He  crossed  the  Red  Sea  dry-shod, 
at  the  head  of  his  army.  He  divided  the  waters  of 
the  rivers  Orontes  and  Hydaspes  by  the  touch  of  his 
rod,  and  passed  through  them  dry-shod.    By  the  same 


72 

mighty  wand  he  drew  water  from  the  rock;  and  wher- 
ever he  went,  the  land  flowed  with  wine,  milk, 
and  honey.  It  is  said  that  while  marching  with  his 
army  in  India  he  enjoyed  the  light  of  the  Sun 
when  the  day  was  spent,  and  it  was  dark  to  others. 
Like  Moses,  Bacchus  was  represented  as  horned. 
He  was  called  the  Law-giver,  his  laws  being  written 
on  two  tables  of  stone.     (See  Note  7.) 

It  is  related  that  on  one  occasion  Pantheus,  King 
of  Thebes,  sent  his  attendants  to  seize  Bacchus  — 
the  Vagabond  Leader  of  a  Faction,  as  he  called  him. 
This  they  were  unable  to  do,  as  his  followers  were 
too  numerous.  They  succeeded,  however,  in  cap- 
turing one  of  his  disciples,  who  was  led  away  and 
shut  up  fast  in  prison ;  but,  while  they  were  getting 
ready  the  instruments  of  execution,  the  prison  doors 
came  open  of  their  own  accord,  and  the  chains  fell 
from  his  limbs,  and  when  they  looked  for  him  he 
was  nowhere  to  be  found. 

Bacchus  was  called  the  Slain  One,  the  Sin-Bearer, 
the  Only-Begotten  Son,  the  Saviour,  and  the  Re- 
deemer, His  death,  resurrection,  and  ascension  were 
commemorated  in  early  spring  by  festivals  similar 
in  character  to  those  held  by  the  Persians,  Egyptians, 
Chaldeans,  and  others. 

The  Greeks  had  their  Holy  Mysteries.  Their 
Eleusinian  Mysteries,  or  the  Sacrament  of  their 
Lord's  Supper,  was  the  most  august  of  all  their 
ceremonies.  It  was  celebrated  every  fifth  year,  in 
honor  of  Ceres,  the  goddess  of  corn,  who,  in  alle- 


73 

gorical  language,  had  given  them  her  flesh  to  eat ;  and 
Bacchus,  the  god  of  wine,  who,  in  like  sense,  had 
given  them  his  blood  to  drink.  These  mysteries  were 
accompanied  with  rites  which  were  considered  to  be 
an  expiation  of  sin.  Throughout  the  whole  cere- 
mony the  name  of  their  God  was  many  times  re- 
peated. His  brightness,  or  glory,  was  not  only  exhib- 
ited to  the  eye,  by  the  rays  which  surrounded  his 
name  (or  his  monogram,  I.  H.  S.),  but  was  made  the 
peculiar  theme  of  their  triumphant  exultation.  The 
monogram  of  Bacchus,  I.  H.  S.,  is  now  used  as  the 
monogram  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  is  wrongfully  sup- 
posed to  stand  for  Jesu  Hominum  Salvator,  or  In 
Hoc  Signo. 

The  stories  of  Prometheus,  Achilles,  and  Melea- 
gros  represent  the  short-lived  Sun.  Ixion,  bound 
on  the  wheel,  was  the  god  Sol  crucified  in  the 
heavens.  The  crucified  dove,  worshipped  by  the 
ancients,  was  none  other  than  the  crucified  Sun  ;  as 
it  is  well  known  that  the  ancients  personified  the 
Sun  as  female  as  well  as  male. 

The  ancient  Etruscans  worshipped  a  Virgin 
Mother  and  Son,  the  latter  represented,  in  pict- 
ures, in  the  arms  of  his  mother.  This  was  the 
goddess  Nutria.  The  goddess  Cybele  was  another 
Virgin  Mother,  and  was  called  Queen  of  Heaven 
and  Mother  of  God.  The  Galli,  now  used  in  the 
churches  of  Italy,  were  anciently  used  in  the  wor- 
ship of  Cybele.  They  were  called  Galliambus,  and 
were  sung  by  her  priests.     Our  Lady  Day,  or  the 


74 

Day  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  of  the  Roman  Church, 
was  first  dedicated  to  Cybele. 

The  ancient  Scandinavians  had  a  sun-god,  or 
Saviour,  Baldur  the  Good,  son  of  the  Al-fader,  Odin 
or  Woden  (Heaven),  and  the  virgin  goddess  Frigga. 
Baldur  was  slain  by  the  sharp  thorn  of  winter,  de- 
scended into  Hell,  and  rose  again  to  life  and  immor- 
tality. The  goddess  Frigga  was  worshipped,  and  the 
night  of  the  greatest  festival  of  all  the  year  —  at  the 
winter  solstice  —  was  called  Mother-night. 

The  Scandinavians  worshipped  a  triune  God,  and 
consecrated  one  day  in  the  week  to  him,  the  day 
being  called  to  the  present  time  Odin's,  or  Woden's, 
day,  which  is  our  Wednesday.  They  observed  the 
rite  of  Baptism.  They  had  a  legend  of  an  Eden, 
or  Golden  Age,  which  lasted  until  the  arrival  of 
woman  out  of  Jotunheim,  the  region  of  giants. 
They  also  had  a  legend  of  a  deluge,  from  which 
only  one  man  and  his  family  escaped,  by  means  of  a 
bark.  They  had  a  legend  corresponding  to  the 
Hebrew  story  of  David  and  Goliath,  in  which  their 
hero  Thor  (the  Sun)  throws  a  hammer  at  Hungnir, 
striking  him  in  the  forehead.  The  hammer  was  a 
cross.  They  also  worshipped  a  god  called  Frey, 
who  was  fabled  to  have  been  killed  at  the  winter 
solstice,  by  a  boar  (winter)  ;  therefore,  a  boar  was 
annually  offered  at  the  great  feast  of  Yule,  now 
called  Christmas.     (See  Note  8.) 

The  ancient  Germans  worshipped  a  virgin  mother 
and    child.      The   virgin's    name   was    Ostara,   or 


75 

Eostre,  whence  comes  our  Easter.  In  ancient  times 
this  festival  was  preceded  by  a  week's  indulgence 
in  all  kinds  of  sports,  called  the  carne-vale,  or  the 
farewell  to  animal  food ;  and  this  was  followed  by  a 
fast  of  forty  days.  This  occurred  centuries  before 
the  Christian  era.     (See  Note  9.) 

The  ancient  Druids  of  Britain  were  also  sun- 
worshippers. 

The  idea  of  redemption  through  the  sufferings  and 
death  of  a  Divine  Saviour  is  to  be  found  in  the 
ancient  religions  of  China.  One  of  their  five  sacred 
volumes,  called  the  Y-King,  says,  in  speaking  of 
Tien,  the  Holy  One  :  — 

The  Holy  One  will  unite  in  himself  all  the  vir- 
tues of  Heaven  and  earth.  By  his  justice  the  world 
will  be  re-established  in  the  ways  of  righteousness. 
He  will  labor  and  suffer  much.  He  must  pass  the 
great  torrent,  whose  waves  shall  enter  into  his  soul ; 
but  he  alone  can  offer  up  to  the  Lord  a  sacrifice 
worthy  of  him. 

An  ancient  commentator  says :  "  The  Holy  One 
[Tien]  does  not  seek  himself,  but  the  good  of  oth- 
ers. He  dies  to  save  the  world."  Tien  is  always 
spoken  of  as  one  with  God,  existing  with  him  from 
all  eternity,  "  before  anything  was  made." 

Lao-kiun,  the  Chinese  philosopher  and  teacher, 
born  in  604  B.  C,  was  said  to  be  a  divine  emana- 
tion, incarnate  in  human  form.  He  was  said  to 
have  existed  "antecedent  to  the  birth  of  the  ele- 


16 

ments,  in  the  Great  Absolute."  "  He  was  the  origi- 
nal ancestor  of  the  prime  breath  of  life,  and  gave 
form  to  the  heavens  and  the  earth."  He  descended 
to  earth  and  was  born  of  a  virgin,  black  in  complex- 
ion, and  described  as  "  marvellous  and  beautiful  as 
jasper."  When  his  mission  of  benevolence  was 
finished  on  earth,  he  ascended  bodily  into  the  Para- 
dise above.  Since  then  he  has  been  worshipped  as 
a  god,  and  splendid  temples  have  been  erected  to 
him.  He  taught  the  doctrine  of  One  God,  who  is 
also  a  Trinity.  His  disciples  are  called  Heavenly 
Teachers.  What  is  now  known  as  the  Easter 
celebration  was  observed  in  China,  and  called  a 
Festival  of  Gratitude  to  Tien.     (See  Note  id.) 

The  Chinese  have,  in  their  sacred  books,  a  story 
of  a  Golden  Age  and  a  mysterious  "delicious" 
garden,  wherein  grew  a  tree  bearing  "apples  of 
immortality,"  guarded  by  a  winged  serpent,  called  a 
Dragon.  The  garden  was  moistened  by  four  rivers, 
which  flowed  from  a  source  called  the  Fountain  of 
Immortality.  One  of  the  rivers  was  called  the  River 
of  the  Lamb.  In  this  blissful  abode  there  was  no 
calamity,  sickness,  or  death. 

In  one  of  the  Chinese  sacred  volumes,  called  the 
Chi-King,  it  is  written  :  — 

All  was  subject  to  man  at  first,  but  a  woman 
threw  us  into  slavery.  The  wise  husband  raised  up 
a  bulwark  of  walls  ;  but  the  woman,  by  an  ambitious 
desire  for  knowledge,  demolished  them.     Our  misery 


/^y^'" 


77 

did  not  come  from  Heaven,  but  from  a  woman. 
She  lost  the  human  race.  Ah,  unhappy  Poo  See ! 
thou  kindledst  the  fire  that  consumes  us,  and  which 
is  every  day  augmenting.  Our  misery  has  lasted 
many  ages.  The  world  is  lost.  Vice  overflows  all 
things,  like  a  mortal  poison. 

The  Chinese  have  a  legend  of  the  Sun  standing 
still,  and  a  legend  of  the  Deluge.  Accounts  of  the 
ascent  to  Heaven  of  holy  men,  without  death,  are 
found  in  their  mythology.  They  believe  that  in 
the  latter  days  there  will  be  a  millennium,  and  that  a 
divine  man  will  establish  himself  on  earth,  and 
everywhere  restore  peace  and  happiness.  From 
time  immemorial  the  Chinese  have  worshipped  a 
virgin  mother  and  child.  The  mother  is  called 
Shin-moo,  or  the  Holy  Mother,  and  is  represented 
with  rays  of  glory  surrounding  her  head.  Tapers 
are  kept  constantly  burning  before  her  images, 
which  are  elevated  in  alcoves  behind  the  altars  of 
their  temples. 

In  the  mythological  systems  of  America,  a  virgin- 
born  god,  or  saviour,  was  not  less  clearly  recognized 
than  in  those  of  the  Old  World.  Among  the  savage 
tribes  his  origin  and  character  were,  for  obvious 
reasons,  much  confused ;  but  among  the  more  ad- 
vanced nations  he  occupied  a  well-defined  position. 

The  Mexican  sun-god,  or  saviour,  Quetzalcoatle, 
born  in  the  land  of  Tulan  in  Anahuac,  was  the  son 
of   Tezcatlipoca,  the   Supreme  God  of  the  ancient 


78 

Mexicans,  and  the  virgin  Sochiquetzal,  who  was 
worshipped  as  the  Virgin  Mother,  the  Queen  of 
Heaven.  Tezcatlipoca  was  styled  Xiuleticutle,  an 
epithet  signifying  the  Lord  of  Heaven.  {Xiuletl 
signifies  blue ;  and  therefore  was  a  name  which  the 
Mexicans  gave  to  Heaven.) 

Quetzalcoatle's  birth  was  heralded  by  a  star,  and 
the  Morning-star  was  his  symbol.  He  taught  metal- 
lurgy, agriculture,  and  the  art  of  government.  He 
was  tempted  by  the  Devil,  and  a  forty  days'  fast 
was  observed  by  his  disciples.  He  was  put  to  death 
by  Eopuco,  and  died  for  the  sins  of  mankind,  after 
having  been  placed  on  a  beam  of  wood,  with  his 
arms  outstretched.  He  was  represented  in  some 
instances  as  crucified  in  space,  in  the  heavens,  within 
a  circle  of  nineteen  figures,  the  number  of  the  me-- 
tonic  cycle,  —  a  serpent  (the  serpent,  when  repre- 
sented in  connection  with  a  crucifixion,  denoting 
evil,  darkness,  and  winter)  being  in  the  picture. 
He  was  occasionally  represented  as  crucified  be- 
tween two  other  victims.  This  denoted  the  three 
qualities,  or  personalities,  of  the  Sun,  as  Creator, 
Saviour,  and  Reconstructor, — the  Trinity.  In  other 
pictures  he  is  crucified  on  a  cross  of  Greek  form, 
with  the  impressions  of  nails  on  the  feet  and  hands, 
and  with  the  body  strangely  covered  with  suns.  In 
these  pictures  many  of  the  figures  have  black  faces, 
and  the  visage  of  Quetzalcoatle  is  strangely  distorted. 

At  the  death  of  Quetzalcoatle,  "  the  Sun  was  dark- 
ened, and  withheld  her  light."     He  descended  into 


79 

Hell,  and  rose  from  the  dead.  His  death  and  resur- 
rection were  celebrated  in  early  spring,  when  victims 
were  nailed  to  a  cross  and  shot  with  an  arrow. 

The  cross  was  said  to  be  the  Tree  of  Nutri- 
ment, or  Tree  of  Life,  —  epithets  applied  by  the 
Roman  Catholics  to  the  cross.  The  rite  of  Baptism 
was  observed,  and  was  believed  to  cleanse  from  sin. 
Infants  were  baptized,  that  sin,  which  tainted  the 
child  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  might  be 
washed  away,  and  the  child  be  born  anew.  The 
sacrament  of  the  Eucharist  was  observed,  the  bread 
being  made  of  corn-meal  mixed  with  blood ;  which, 
after  consecration  by  the  priest,  was  given  to  the 
people  as  the  flesh  of  their  Saviour.     (See  Note  i  i.) 

The  Mexican  idea  of  the  Supreme  God  was  sim- 
ilar to  the  Hebrew.  Like  Jehovah,  Tezcatlipoca 
dwelt  in  the  ''midst  of  thick  darkness."  No  man 
ever  saw  his  face,  for  he  appeared  only  as  a  shade. 
When  he  descended  upon  the  Mount  of  Tezcatepec, 
darkness  overshadowed  the  earth,  while  fire  and 
water,  in  mingled  streams,  flowed  beneath  his  feet, 
and  from  the  summit.  He  was  omnipresent  and 
omniscient,  a  being  of  absolute  perfection  and  per- 
fect purity.  The  Mexicans  paid  him  great  rever- 
ence and  adoration,  and  addressed,  him,  in  their 
prayers,  as  "Lord,  whose  servants  we  are." 

In  the  annals  of  the  Mexicans,  the  first  woman, 
whose  name  was  translated  by  the  old  Spanish 
writers  "  the  woman  of  our  flesh,"  is  always  repre- 
sented as  accompanied  by  a  great  male  serpent,  who 


8o 


seems  to  be  talking  to  her.  By  the  Mexicans,  she  is 
called  Ysnextli,  which  signifies  eyes  blind  with  ashes. 
By  sinning,  she  lost  Paradise,  her  crime  being  the 
plucking  of  roses,  called  Fruta  del  arbal,  —  the  fruit 
of  the  tree.  They  declare  that  they  are  still  unable 
to  look  up  to  heaven  on  account  of  this  fall. 

The  ancient  Mexicans  had  a  tradition  of  a  deluge, 
from  which  a  person  corresponding  to  Noah  was 
saved,  with  six  others,  in  an  ark,  which  landed  on 
a  mountain,  a  bird  being  sent  out  to  ascertain  when 
the  waters  had  subsided.  They  also  had  a  legend 
of  the  building  of  a  tower,  which  would  reach  to  the 
skies,  their  object  being  to  see  what  was  going  on  in 
Heaven,  and  also  to  have  a  place  of  refuge  in  case 
of  another  deluge.  The  gods  beheld  with  wrath 
this  edifice,  the  top  of  which  was  nearing  the  clouds, 
and  they  hurled  fire  from  heaven  upon  it,  which 
threw  it  down  and  killed  many  of  the  workmen. 
The  work  was  then  discontinued,  as  each  family 
interested  in  the  building  of  the  tower  received  a 
language  of  its  own,  and  the  builders  could  not 
understand  each  other.  The  ancient  Mexicans 
pointed  to  the  ruins  of  a  tower  at  Cholula,  as  evi- 
dence of  the  truth  of  their  story. 

The  disciples  of  Quetzalcoatle  expected  his  second 
advent.  He  told  the  inhabitants  of  Cholula  that  he 
would  return  to  govern  them.  This  tradition  was 
deeply  cherished  by  them  ;  and  when  the  Spaniards, 
with  Cortez  at  their  head,  came  to  subdue  the  land, 
the  Mexicans   implicitly  believed  that  Quetzalcoatle 


Si 


was  returning,  bringing  his  temples  (the  ships)  with 
him. 

The  annunciation  of  the  Virgin  Sochiquetzal  was 
the  subject  of  a  Mexican  hieroglyphic.  In  this  she 
is  represented  as  receiving  from  the  ambassador,  or 
angel,  a  bunch  of  flowers.  This  brings  to  mind  the 
lotus,  the  sacred  plant  of  the  East,  which  is  placed 
in  the  hands  of  Pagan  and  Christian  madonnas. 
The  resurrection  of  Quetzalcoatle  is  represented  in 
hieroglyphics.  The  cross  was  a  very  sacred  symbol 
with  the  Mexicans. 

Heaven  they  located  in  the  Sun,  and  the  blessed 
were  permitted  to  revel  amongst  lovely  clouds. 
There  was  a  hell  for  the  wicked,  and  a  sort  of  "  quiet 
limbo  for  those  who  were  in  no  way  distinguished." 
Amongst  their  prayers  or  invocations  were  the 
formulas :  — 

"  Wilt  thou  blot  us  out,  O  Lord,  forever  ?  Is  this 
punishment  intended  not  for  our  reformation,  but  for 
our  destruction  ?  "  Again  :  "  Impart  to  us,  out  of 
thy  great  mercy,  thy  gifts,  which  we  are  not  worthy 
to  receive  through  our  own  merits." 

"  Keep  peace  with  all."  "  Bear  injuries  with 
humility ;  God,  who  sees,  will  avenge  you."  These 
were  among  their  maxims.  Also :  "  Clothe  the 
naked  and  feed  the  hungry,  whatever  privations  it 
may  cost  thee ;  for,  remember,  their  flesh  is  like 
thine."  A  Spanish  writer  remarks  that  the  Devil 
had  positively  taught  the  Mexicans  the  same  things 
which  God  had  imparted  to  Christendom. 
6 


82 


The  Mexican  temples  —  teocallis,  or  Houses  of 
God  —  were  very  numerous,  there  being  several 
hundreds  in  each  of  the  principal  cities  of  the  king- 
dom. There  were  long  processions  of  priests,  and 
numerous  festivals  of  unusual  sacredness,  as  well  as 
appropriate  monthly  and  daily  celebrations  of  wor- 
ship. The  great  cities  were  divided  into  districts, 
each  of  which  was  placed  under  the  charge  of  a  sort 
of  parochial  clergy,  who  regulated  every  act  of  relig- 
ion within  their  precincts,  and  who  administered  the 
rites  of  Confession  and  Absolution.  The  form  of 
absolution  contained,  among  other  things,  the  fol- 
lowing :  — 

Oh,  merciful  Lord,  thou  who  knowest  the  secrets 
of  all  hearts,  let  thy  forgiveness  and  favor  descend, 
like  the  pure  waters  of  Heaven,  to  wash  away  the 
stains  from  the  soul.  Thou  knowest  that  this  poor 
man  has  sinned,  not  from  his  own  free  will,  but  from 
the  influence  of  the  sin  under  which  he  was  born. 

The  Mayas,  of  Yucatan,  had  a  virgin-born  god, 
corresponding  entirely  with  Quetzalcoatle,  if  he  was 
not  indeed  the  same  under  another  name.  The 
Muyscas,  of  Colombia,  had  a  similar  god,  who  was 
the  incarnation  of  the  Great  Father,  whose  sover- 
eignty and  paternal  care  he  emblematized.  The 
inhabitants  of  Nicaragua  claimed  that  the  son  of 
their  principal  god  came  down  to  earth  and  in- 
structed them.  There  was  a  corresponding  char- 
acter in  the  traditionary  history  of  Peru.     The  Sun, 


83 

—  the  god  of  the  Peruvians,  —  deploring  their  mis- 
erable condition,  sent  down  his  son,  Manco  Capac, 
to  instruct  them  in  religion.  They  believed  in  a 
Trinity.  In  Brazil,  besides  the  common  belief  in 
an  age  of  violence,  during  which  the  world  was  de- 
stroyed by  water,  there  is  a  tradition  of  a  supernat- 
ural being,  called  Zomo,  whose  history  is  similar  to 
that  of  Quetzalcoatle.  The  semi-civilized  tribes  of 
Florida  had  like  traditions.  Among  the  savage 
tribes  the  same  notions  prevailed.     (See  Note  12.) 

The  Edues  of  the  Californians  taught  that  there 
is  a  supreme  Creator,  and  that  his  son  came 
down  to  earth  and  instructed  them  in  religion. 
Finally,  through  hatred,  the  Indians  killed  him; 
but,  although  dead,  he  is  incorruptible  and  beauti- 
ful. To  him  they  pay  adoration,  as  the  mediatory 
power  between  earth  and  the  Supreme  Niparaga. 
They  believed  in  a  triune  God.  The  Iroquois  also 
had  a  beneficent  being,  uniting  in  himself  the  char- 
acter of  a  god  and  man,  who  imparted  to  them  the 
laws  of  the  Great  Spirit,  and  established  their  forms 
of  government. 

Among  the  Algonquins,  and  particularly  among 
the  Ojibways  and  other  remnants  of  the  Algonquin 
stock,  this  intermediary  teacher,  denominated  the 
Great  Incarnation  of  the  Northwest,  is  fully  recog- 
nized. He  bears  the  name  of  Michabou,  is  repre- 
sented as  the  first-born  son  of  a  great  celestial  man- 
itou,  or  spirit,  by  an  earthly  mother,  and  is  esteemed 
the  friend  and  protector  of  the  human  race. 


84 

The  ancient  Chaldees  believed  in  a  celestial  vir- 
gin, to  whom  the  erring  sinner  could  appeal.  She 
was  represented  as  a  mother  with  a  child  in  her 
arms.  The  ancient  Assyrians  and  Babylonians  wor- 
shipped a  goddess-mother  and  son.  The  mother's 
name  was  Mylitta,  and  the  son  was  Tammuz,  or 
Adonis,  the  Saviour,  who  was  worshipped  as  the 
Mediator.  Tammuz  was  born  on  the  twenty-fifth 
of  December,  and,  like  other  sun-gods,  suffered  and 
was  slain.  The  accounts  of  his  death  are  conflict- 
ing. One,  however,  states  that  he  was  crucified. 
He  descended  into  Hell ;  he  rose  from  the  dead  on 
the  third  day,  and  ascended  into  Heaven.  His  wor- 
shippers celebrated  annually,  in  early  spring,  a 
feast  in  commemoration  of  his  death  and  resurrec- 
tion, with  the  utmost  display.  An  image,  intended 
as  the  representation  of  their  Lord,  was  laid  on  a 
bier  and  bewailed  in  mournful  ditties  ;  precisely  as 
the  Roman  Catholics,  at  the  present  day,  lament  the 
death  of  Jesus,  in  their  Good  Friday  mass.  During 
the  ceremony  the  priest  murmured :  "  Trust  ye  in 
your  Lord,  for  the  pains  which  he  endured  our  sal- 
vation have  procured."  This  image  was  carried 
with  great  solemnity  to  a  tomb.  The  large  wound 
in  the  side  was  shown,  just  as,  centuries  later,  the 
wound  was  displayed  which  Christ  received  from  the 
spear-thrust.     (See  Note  13.) 

After  the  attendants  had  for  a  long  time  bewailed 
the  death  of  this  just  person,  he  was  at  length 
understood  to  be  restored  to  life,  —  to  have  experi- 


85 

enced  a  resurrection,  signified  by  the  readmission 
of  light.  The  people  then  exclaimed  :  "  Hail  to  the 
Dove  !  the  Restorer  of  Light." 

The  worshippers  of  Tammuz  believed  in  the 
Trinity,  observed  the  rite  of  Baptism  and  the  sacra- 
ment of  the  bread  and  wine.  The  symbol  of  the 
cross  was  honored  by  the  ancient  Babylonians,  and 
is  found  on  their  oldest  monuments. 

The  Chaldeans  had  their  Memra,  or  Word  of 
God,  corresponding  to  the  Greek  Logos.  In  their 
oracles  the  doctrine  of  the  Only-Begotten  Son,  I. 
A.  O.  (as  Creator)  is  plainly  taught. 

The  Babylonians  had  a  myth  of  the  Creation 
and  Fall  of  Man,  which  is  almost  identical  with  the 
account  contained  in  Genesis.  As  they  had  this 
account  fifteen  hundred  years  or  more  before  the 
Hebrews  heard  of  it  the  account  in  Genesis  was 
unquestionably  taken  from  the  Babylonians.  Cunei- 
form inscriptions,  discovered  by  Mr.  George  Smith, 
of  the  British  Museum,  show  conclusively  that  the 
Babylonians  had  this  myth  two  thousand  years 
before  the  time  assigned  as  the  birth  of  Christ. 
The  myth  appears  to  be  a  combination  of  the 
phases  of  sun-worship  which  denoted  the  generating 
power  of  the  Sun.     (See  Note  14.) 

The  Babylonians  had  an  account  of  a  deluge, 
which  was  very  similar  to  the  Hebrew  account. 
This  was  also  on  the  terra-cotta  tablets  discovered 
by  Mr.  Smith ;  and  is  supposed  to  be  a  solar  myth, 
written,  apparently,  with  a  view  to  make  a  story. 


86 


fitting  to  the  sign  of  the  zodiac,  called  Aquarius. 
The  Chaldeans  were  skilled  astronomers,  and,  it  is 
said,  they  asserted  that  whenever  all  the  planets 
met  in  the  sign  Capricornus,  the  whole  earth  must 
be  overwhelmed  with  a  deluge  of  water. 

The  Babylonians  had  a  legend  of  the  Building 
of  the  Tower  of  Babel,  which  antedates  the 
Hebrew  account.  A  tower  in  Babylonia,  which  was 
evidently  built  for  astronomical  purposes,  appears  to 
have  been  the  foundation  for  the  legend.  This  was 
also  described  on  the  terra-cotta  tablets  discovered 
by  Mr.  Smith.  The  tower  was  called  the  Sta^s 
of  the  Seven  Spheres ;  and  each  one  of  these 
stages  was  consecrated  to  the  Sun,  Moon,  Saturn, 
Jupiter,  Mars,  Venus,  and  Mercury.  Nebuchado- 
nazar  says  of  it,  in  his  cylinders  :  — 

The  building,  named  the  Stages  of  the  Seven 
Spheres,  which  was  the  tower  of  Borsippa  [Babel], 
had  been  built  by  a  former  king.  He  had  com- 
pleted forty-two  cubits,  but  did  not  finish  its  head. 
From  the  lapse  of  time  it  had  become  ruined  .  .  . 
Merodach,  my  great  Lord,  inclined  my  heart  to 
repair  the  building. 

There  is  not  a  word  in  these  cylinders  touching 
the  confusion  of  tongues,  or  of  anything  pertaining 
thereto.  It  appears  from  other  sources  that  the 
word  Babel,  which  is  really  Bab-il  (the  Gate  of  God), 
was  erroneously  supposed  to  be  from  the  root  i/ada/ 
—  /o   confuse;   and   hence   arises  the  mystical  ex- 


^7 

\  planation  that  Babel  was  a  place  where  human 
"^  speech  became  confused. 

The  ancient  Babylonians  had  a  legend,  some  two 
thousand  years  B.C.,  of  a  mighty  man,  Izdubar,  who 
was  a  lion-slayer.  From  this  legend  the  Hebrews 
probably  obtained  their  story  of  Samson.  The 
legend  is  without  doubt  a  sun-myth.  The  Assyr- 
ians worshipped  a  sun-god  named  Sandon,  who  was 
believed  to  be  a  lion-killer,  and  was  frequently 
figured  as  struggling  with  the  lion,  or  standing  upon 
the  slain  lion. 

The  Chaldeans  had  an  account  of  one  Zerban 
(rich  in  gold)^  which  corresponds  in  many  respects 
to  the  account  of  Abraham.  The  Assyrians  had  an 
account  of  a  War  in  Heaven,  which  was  like  that 
described  in  the  Book  of  Enoch  and  the  Apocalypse. 

"  It  seems,"  says  Mr.  George  Smith,  "  from  the 
indications  in  the  inscriptions  [the  cuneiform],  that 
there  happened,  in  the  interval  between  2000  and 
1850  B.C.,  a  general  collection  [by  the  Babylonians] 
of  the  development  of  the  various  traditions  of  the 
Creation,  Flood,  Tower  of  Babel,  and  other  similar 
legends.  These  legends  were,  however,  traditions 
before  they  were  committed  to  writing,  and  were 
common,  in  some  form,  to  all  the  country." 

The  Hebrews  undoubtedly  became  familiar  with 
these  legends  of  the  Babylonians,  during  their  cap- 
tivity in  Chaldea,  and  afterwards  wrote  them  as 
their  own  history. 

It  is  a  fact,  demonstrated  by  history,  that  when 


88 


one  nation  of  antiquity  came  into  contact  with 
another,  each  adopted  the  other's  myths  without 
hesitation.  The  tendency  of  myths  to  reproduce 
themselves,  with  differences  only  of  names  and 
local  coloring,  becomes  especially  manifest  as  we 
peruse  the  legendary  history  of  antiquity. 

It  is  said  of  the  ancient  Hebrews,  that  they  adopted 
forms,  terms,  ideas,  and  myths  of  other  nations, 
with  whom  they  came  in  contact,  and  cast  them  all 
in  a  peculiar  Jewish  religious  mould. 

"  The  opinion  that  the  Pagan  religions  were  cor- 
ruptions of  the  religion  of  the  Old  Testament,  once 
supported  by  men  of  high  authority  and  great  learn- 
ing, is  now,"  in  the  words  of  Professor  Miiller,  "  as 
completely  surrendered,  as  the  attempts  of  explaining 
Greek  and  Latin  as  the  corruptions  of  Hebrew." 

The  Hebrew  was  a  Semitic  race,  and  consequently 
had  inherited  none  of  the  Aryan  myths  and  legends. 

From  the  time  of  Moses  till  the  time  of  the 
prophet  Hezekiah,  a  period  of  seven  hundred  years 
or  more,  the  Hebrews  were  idolaters,  as  their  records 
show.  The  serpent  was  reverenced  as  the  Healer 
of  the  Nation ;  they  worshipped  a  bull  called  Apis, 
as  did  the  Egyptians ;  they  worshipped  the  sun, 
moon,  stars,  and  all  the  hosts  of  heaven ;  they  wor- 
shipped fire,  and  kept  it  burning  on  an  altar,  as  did 
the  Persians  and  other  nations ;  they  worshipped 
stones,  revered  an  oak-tree,  and  bowed  down  to 
images ;  they  worshipped  a  virgin  mother  and 
child  ;  they  worshipped  Baal,  Moloch,  and  Chemosh 


89 

(names  given  to  the  sun),  and  offered  up  human 
sacrifices  to  them,  after  which,  in  some'  instances, 
they  ate  the  victim.  The  Hebrews  only  began  to 
abandon  their  gross  Syrian  idolatries  after  their 
Eastern  captivity.  Then  also  they  began  to  collate 
the  legends  they  had  acquired,  and  write  what 
they  term  history.  It  was  not  until  this  time  that 
the  dogmas  about  Satan,  the  angels  Michael,  Uriel, 
Yar,  Nisan,  the  Rebel  Angels,  the  Battle  in  Heaven, 
the  Immortality  of  the  Soul,  and  the  Resurrection 
of  the  Dead,  were  introduced  and  naturalized  among 
the  Jews. 

The  theory  that  man  was  originally  created  a  per- 
fect being,  and  is  now  only  a  fallen  and  depraved 
remnant  of  his  original  self,  must  be  abandoned, 
with  the  belief  that  the  account  of  the  creation  in 
Genesis  was  not  a  revelation  direct  from  God  to  the 
Hebrews. 

With  the  abandonment  of  this  theor}^,  the  whole 
Orthodox  scheme  must  be  abandoned ;  for  upon  this 
mylh  the  theology  of  Christendom  is  built.  The 
doctrines  of  the  Inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  the 
Fall  of  Man,  his  Total  Depravity,  the  Incarnation,  the 
Atonement,  the  Devil,  Hell,  —  in  fact,  the  entire  the- 
ology of  the  Christian  church,  —  fall  to  pieces  with 
the  inaccuracy  of  this  story. 

According  to  Christian  dogma,  the  Incarnation  of 
Christ  had  become  necessary,  on  account  of  Sin, 
which  was  introduced  into  the  world  by  the  Fall  of 
Man.     These  two  dogmas  cannot  be  separated.     If 


90 

there  was  no  Fall,  there  was  no  need  of  an  Atone- 
ment, and  no  Redeemer  was  required. 

Jesus  Christ  saves  men  as  he  helps  them,  by  his 
teachings  and  example,  to  live  pure  and  upright 
lives. 

As  far  as  we  can  judge,  Jesus  himself  did  not  as- 
sert that  he  was  equal  to,  or  a  part  of,  the  Supreme 
God.  Indeed,  whenever  occasion  arose,  he  asserted 
his  inferiority  to  the  Father.  He  made  himself  in- 
ferior in  knowledge,  when  he  declared,  that  of  the 
day  and  hour  of  the  Judgment,  nQ_man  knew,  — 
neither  the  angels  in  Heaven  nor  the  Son,  — no  one 
except  the  Father.  He  made  himself  inferior  in 
power,  when  he  said  that  seats  on  his  right  hand  and 
on  his  left,  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  were  not  his 
to  give.  He  made  himself  inferior  in  virtue,  when 
he  desired  a  certain  man  not  to  address  him  as 
Good  Master,  for  there  was  none  good  but  God. 
The  words  of  his  prayer  at  Gethsemane,  "  all  things 
are  possible  unto  thee,"  imply  that  all  things  were  not 
possible  to  himself  ;  while  its  conclusion,  "  not  what  I 
will,  but  what  thou  wilt,"  indicates  submission  to  a 
superior.  The  cry  of  agony,  "  My  God  !  My  God  ! 
why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  ?  "  would  have  been  quite 
unmeaning,  if  the  person  forsaken  and  the  person 
forsaking  had  been  one  and  the  same. 

As  was  the  case  with  Sakya  Muni,  and  many 
others,  the  sun-myths  were  incorporated  into  the 
history  of  Jesus  Christ. 

There  is  much  circumstantial  evidence  to  show 


91 


that  Jesus  was  an  Essene,  and  that  the  Essenes 
were  Buddhists.  At  the  time  of  Christ's  birth,  the 
Jews  were  divided  into  three  sects  —  the  Pharisees, 
the  Essenes,  and  the  Sadducees,  —  the  last  only  being 
purely  Mosaic,  and  the  first  two  being  very  like  the 
Buddhists.  That  Buddhism  had  been  planted  in  the 
dominions  of  the  Seleucidae  and  Ptolemies  (Pales- 
tine belonging  to  the  former)  before  the  beginning 
of  the  third  century  B.C.  is  proved  by  a  passage  in 
the  Edicts  of  Asoka,  grandson  of  the  famous  Chan- 
dragupta,  the  Sandracottus  of  the  Greeks.  These 
edicts  are  engraven  on  a  rock  at  Girnur,  in  Guzerat. 
The  great  missionary  effort  of  Buddhism  took  place 
in  the  time  of  Asoka,  about  B.C.  307,  and  it  was  not 
likely  that  the  west  would  be  neglected  when  the 
eastern  countries  received  such  attention  as  they 
did.  The  Buddhist  missionaries,  without  doubt, 
made  their  way  to  the  Hebrews,  who  had  always 
shown  a  great  aptitude  to  adopt  the  faith  of  out- 
siders, and  persuaded  many  of  them  to  listen  to  the 
teachings  of  Siddhartha ;  but  they  were  unable  to 
convert  them  sufficiently  to  induce  them  to  give  up 
the  Law  of  Moses.     (See  Note  15.) 

The  Essenes  were  a  sect  of  unusual  and  singular 
piety,  their  exemplary  virtues  eliciting  the  unbounded 
admiration  of  even  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  Severe 
asceticism,  a  rare  benevolence  to  one  another  and 
to  mankind  in  general,  were  their  most  striking 
characteristics.  Their  fundamental  laws  were,  to 
love  God  and  their  neighbor,  and  do  to  others  as 


92 


they  would  have  others  do  to  them.  They  lived  in 
communities  or  monasteries,  and  had  all  things  in 
common,  merely  appointing  a  steward  to  manage  the 
common  bag. 

They  advocated  celibacy,  but  had  no  law  prohibit- 
ing marriage ;  though  if  any  among  them  wedded, 
they  were  obliged  to  enter  another  class  of  the 
brotherhood.  Their  numbers  were  continually  be- 
ing augmented  by  additions  from  outside.  When 
a  person  wished  to  enter  the  community,  he  was 
taken  upon  trial ;  and,  if  approved,  he  was  obliged 
to  take  an  oath  that  he  would  fear  God  and  be  just 
towards  all  men.  He  sold  all  that  he  possessed, 
and  gave  the  proceeds  to  the  brotherhood.  They 
resembled,  in  their  habits  and  customs,  a  fraternity 
of  monks  —  of  a  working,  rather  than  a  mendicant 
order.  They  were  all  upon  the  same  level,  the 
exercise  of  authority  one  over  another  being  pro- 
hibited. They  abhorred  slavery,  and  called  no  man 
on  earth  Master,  yet  they  served  one  another. 
When  going  upon  missions  of  mercy,  they  provided 
neither  silver  nor  gold,  but  depended  entirely  upon 
the  hospitality  of  other  members  of  the  brotherhood. 
When  going  upon  perilous  journeys,  they  took 
weapons  of  defence,  but  repudiated  offensive  war. 
They  abjured  swearing.  They  conversed  on  such 
parts  of  philosophy  only  as  concerned  God  and 
man,  and  conversed  not  at  all  on  secular  subjects 
before  the  rising  of  the  Sun,  but  prayed  devoutly, 
with  their  faces  turned  to  the._£a§t.     They  did  not 


93 


lay  up  treasures  on  earth,  and  despised  money, 
fame,  and  pleasures,  as  they  thought  these  things 
had  a  tendency  to  enchain  men  to  earthly  enjoy- 
ments, —  a  peculiarly  Buddhist  tenet.  They  consid- 
ered the  use  of  ointment  as  defiling,  which  was  cer- 
tainly not  a  Hebraic  doctrine.  They  gave  thanks 
before  and  after  eating;  and  before  entering  the 
refectory  they  bathed  in  pure  water  and  put  on 
white  garments.  They  ate  only  enough  to  sustain 
life.  They  put  the  greatest  stress  upon  being 
meek  and  lowly  in  heart,  and  commended  the  poor 
in  spirit,  those  who  hunger  and  thirst  after  right- 
eousness, the  merciful,  the  pure  in  heart,  and  the 
peacemaker. 

The  Essenes  combined  the  healing  of  the  body 
with  that  of  the  soul ;  and  the  Greek  name  by 
which  they  were  known,  Therapeutae  (Essene  is  the 
Assyrian  word  for  Therapeutae),  signifies  healer,  or 
doctor^  and  designated  the  sect  as  professing  to  be 
endowed  with  the  miraculous  gift  of  healing,  —  more 
especially  with  respect  to  diseases  of  the  mind. 
They  did  not  offer  animal  sacrifices,  but  strove  to 
present  their  bodies  "  a  living  sacrifice,  holy  and 
acceptable  unto  God."  It  was  their  great  aim  to 
become  so  pure  and  holy  as  to  be  temples  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  to  be  able  to  prophesy.  They 
reverenced  Moses  and  had  respect  for  the  Sabbath. 
They  practised  endurance  as  a  duty,  and  bore  all 
tortures  with  equanimity.  They  fully  believed  in  a 
future  state  of  existence,  in  which  the  soul,  liberated 


94 


from  the  body,  mounts  upwards  to  a  Paradise  where 
there  are  no  storms,  no  cold,  no  intense  heat,  and 
where  all  are  constantly  refreshed  by  gentle  ocean- 
breezes.  Pliny  tells  us  that  the  usages  of  the  Essenes 
differed  from  those  of  all  other  nations. 

It  will  be  evident  to  those  familiar  with  the  Gos- 
pels that  the  tenets  of  the  Essenes  and  the  teach- 
ings of  Jesus  are  almost  identical.  Jesus  differed 
from  them,  however,  in  some  respects,  as  any  large 
nature  is  apt  to  differ  from  others.  He  repudiated 
the  extremes  of  the  Essenes.  They  were  ascetics, 
but  he  ate  and  drank  the  good  things  of  life.  They 
considered  themselves  defiled  by  contact  with  those 
less  holy  than  themselves;  but  he  associated  with 
publicans  and  sinners. 

Every  Jew  was  obliged  to  be  a  member  of  one  of 
the  three  sects  named  above,  and  it  is  but  natural 
to  suppose  that  Jesus  would  have  been  more  in 
sympathy  with  the  Essenes  than  with  the  other  two 
Jewish  sects.  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  he  fre- 
quently rebuked  the  Sadducees  and  Pharisees,  but 
never  denounced  the  Essenes. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  Essenes  were  ascetics  and 
celibates,  while  the  purely  Mosaic  of  Jews  were 
neither.  It  is  true  that  fasting  is  occasionally  men- 
tioned in  the  Old  Testament,  as  a  sign  of  grief  or 
of  abasement,  but  never  as  a  means  of  gaining 
salvation  in  a  future  life,  —  for  immortality  was 
unknown  to  Moses  and  the  Jews ;  while  celibacy  is 
everywhere  spoken  of   in  the  Old  Testament  as  a 


95 

misiortune,  and  an  abundance  of  wives  is  regarded 
as  a  proof  of  divine  favor.  '■ 

The  Jews  were  encouraged  in  having  a  plurality 
of  wives,  but  they  were  nowhere  directed  or,  recom- 
mended to  live  on  charity.  The  Priests  and  Levites 
were  not  ordered  to  go  about  the  country  expounding 
or  teaching  the  Law.  Consequently,  when  asceti- 
cism, preaching,  and  celibacy  began  to  be  advocated, 
between  the  time  of  Antiochus  and  Jesus,  the  infer- 
ence is  that  they  were  introduced  from  without,  and 
by  those  of  the  only  religion  which  inculcated  them 
as  articles  of  faith  and  practice. 

It  appears  singular  that  there  should  be  no  men- 
tion of  the  Essenes  in  the  JN"ew  Testament,  consider- 
ing the  fact  that  the  other  two  Jewish  sects  were  so 
frequently  spoken  of.  This  can  only  be  accounted 
for  on  the  ground  that  the  multitude  of  references  in 
the  New  Testament  to  a  class  called  the  Brethren, 
refer  to  the  Essenes.  The  Essenes  were  a  brother- 
hood, and  knew  each  other  as  brethren,  as  the  Free 
Masons,  who  claim  descent  from  the  Essenes,  do  at 
the  present  day.  We  are  told  that  the  disciples  were 
first  called  Christians  at  Antioch.  They  must  have 
had  a  name  previous  to  that,  and  we  know  they  ad- 
dressed each  other  as  brethren. 

As  De  Quincey  says  :  "  If  the  Essenes  were  not  the 
early  Christians  in  disguise,  then  was  Christianity, 
as  a  knowledge,  taught  independently  of  Christ,  —  nay, 
in  opposition  to  Christ."  ^     This  would  explain  the 

1  Historical  and  Critical  Essays,  p.  ii6.     Boston  :  1853. 


96 

very  singular  fact  that  Josephus  has  not  mentioned 
Christ  or  the  early  Christians.  The  Essenes  dis- 
appeared from  history  shortly  after  the  time  assigned 
as  the  crucifixion  of  Christ,  and  it  is  supposed  that 
they  have  come  down  in  history  as  Christians.  Eu- 
sebius,  Bishop  of  Caesarea,  the  celebrated  ecclesiasti- 
cal historian,  considered  them  Christians.  He  says  : 
"  It  is  very  likely  that  the  commentaries  [Scriptures] 
which  were  among  them  [the  Essenes]  were  the 
Gospels,  and  the  works  of  the  apostles,  and  certain 
expositions  of  the  ancient  prophets,  such  as  partly 
that  Epistle  unto  the  Hebrews  and  also  the  other 
Epistles  of  Paul  do  contain."  i 

Eusebius,  in  quoting  from  Philo  concerning  the 
Essenes,  seems  to  take  it  for  granted  that  they  and 
the  Christians  were  one  and  the  same ;  and  from  the 
manner  in  which  he  writes,  it  would  appear  that  it 
was  generally  understood  so.  He  says  that  Philo 
called  them  *' worshippers,"  and  concludes  by  say- 
ing :  "  But  whether  he  himself  gave  them  this  name, 
or  whether  at  the  beginning  they  were  so  called 
when  as  yet  the  name  of  Christians  was  not  every- 
where published,  I  think  it  not  needful  curiosity  to 
sift  out."  2 

Epiphanius,  a  Christian  bishop  and  writer  of  the 
fourth  century,  in  speaking  of  the  Essenes,  says  : 
"  They  who  believed  on  Christ  were  called  Jessaei  [or 
Essenes]  before  they  were  called  Christians.     They 

1  Hist.  Eccl.,  lib.  2,  ch.  xvii.    London :  1637. 

2  Ibid. 


97 

derived  their  constitution  from  the  signification  of 
the  name  'Jesus/  which  in  Hebrew  signifies  the  same 
as  Therapeutes,  that  is,  a  saviour  or  physician."  ^ 
Godfrey  Higgins  says  :  — 

The  Essenes  were  called  physicians  of  the  soul, 
or  Therapeutae  ;  being  resident  both  in  Judaea  and 
Egypt,  they  probably  spoke  or  had  their  sacred 
books  in  Chaldee.  They  were  Pythagoreans,  as  is 
proved  by  all  their  forms,  ceremonies,  and  doctrines, 
and  they  called  themselves  sons  of  Jesse.  ...  If  the 
Pythagoreans,  or  Conenobitae,  as  they  were  called 
by  Jamblicus,  were  Buddhists,  the  Essenes  were 
Buddhists.  The  Essenes  called  Koinobii  lived  in 
Egypt,  on  the  lake  of  Parembole  or  Maria,  in  mon- 
asteries. These  are  the  very  places  in  which  we 
formerly  found  the  Gymnosophists  or  Samaneans,  or 
Buddhist  priests,  to  have  lived,  which  Gymnosophists 
are  placed  also  by  Ptolemy  in  northeastern  India. 

Their  [the  Essenes]  parishes,  churches,  bishops, 
priests,  deacons,  festivals  are  all  identically  the  same 
[as  the  Christians].  They  had  apostolic  founders, 
the  manners  which  distinguished  the  immediate  apos- 
tles of  Christ,  scriptures  divinely  inspired,  the  same 
allegorical  mode  of  interpreting  them  which  has 
since  obtained  among  Christians,  and  the  same  or- 
der of  performing  public  worship.  They  had  mis- 
sionary stations  or  colonies  of  their  community 
established    in    Rome,    Corinth,   Galatia,    Ephesus, 

1  Doane,  Bible  Myths,  p.  426.     New  York:  1883. 
7 


98 


Philippi,  Colosse,  and  Thessalonica,  precisely  such 
and  in  the  same  circumstances,  as  were  those  to 
whom  Saint  Paul  addressed  his  letters  in  those 
places.  All  the  fine  moral  doctrines  which  are 
attributed  to  the  Samaritan  Nazarite,  and  I  doubt 
not  justly  attributed  to  him,  are  to  be  found  among 
the  doctrines  of  the  ascetics.-^ 

In  reference  to  this  subject,  Arthur  Lillie  says :  — 

It  is  asserted  by  calm  thinkers  like  Dean  Mansel, 
that  within  two  generations  of  the  time  of  Alexander 
the  Great,  the  missionaries  of  Buddha  made  their 
appearance  at  Alexandria.  This  theory  is  confirmed 
in  the  east  by  the  Asoka  monuments,  in  the  west 
by  Philo.  He  expressly  maintains  the  identity  in 
creed  of  the  higher  Judaism  and  that  of  the  Gym- 
nosophists  of  India  who  abstained  from  the  "  sacri- 
fice of  living  animals,"  —  in  a  word,  the  Buddhists. 
It  would  follow  from  this  that  the  priestly  religions  of 
Babylonia,  Palestine,  Egypt,  and  Greece  were  under- 
mined by  certain  kindred  mj^stical  societies  organ- 
ized by  Buddha's  missionaries  under  the  various 
names  of  Therapeutes,  Essenes,  Neo-Pythagoreans, 
Neo-Zoroastrians,  etc.  Thus  Buddhism  prepared 
the  way  for  Christianity.^ 

We  find  Saint  Paul,  the  first  Apostle  of  the  Gen- 
tiles, avowing  that  he  was  made  a  minister  of  the 

1  Anacalypsis,  vol.  i.  p.  747,  vol.  ii.  p.  43.     London :  1827. 

2  Buddha  and  Early  Buddhism,  p.  vi.     London:  1881. 


99 


Gospel  which  had  already  been  preached  to  every 
creature  under  heaven,^  and  preaching  a  God  mani- 
fest in  the  flesh,  who  had  been  believed  on  in  the 
world,  —  therefore  before  the  commencement  of  his 
ministry,  —  and  who  could  not  have  been  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  who  had  certainly  not  been  preached  at 
that  time,  nor  generally  believed  on  in  the  world  till 
ages  after.  Saint  Paul  owns  himself  a  deacon,  which 
is  the  lowest  ecclesiastical  grade  of  the  Therapeutan 
church.  "  The  Gospel  of  which  Paul's  Epistles  speak 
had  been  extensively  preached  and  fully  established 
before  the  time  of  Jesus  by  the  Therapeutae  or  Es- 
senes,  who  believed  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Angel- 
Messiah,  the  ^on  from  heaven  ;  the  doctrine  of 
the  '  Anointed  Angel,'  of  the  man  from  heaven,  the 
Creator  of  the  world ;  the  doctrine  of  the  atoning 
sacrificial  death  of  Jesus  by  the  blood  of  his  cross ; 
the  doctrine  of  the  Messianic  antetype  of  the  Paschal 
lamb  and  of  the  Paschal  omer,  and  thus  of  the  re- 
surrection of  Jesus  Christ  the  third  day  according 
to  the  Scriptures,  —  these  doctrines  of  Paul  can 
with  more  or  less  certainty  be  connected  with  the 
Essenes.  ...  It  becomes  almost  a  certainty  that 
Eusebius  was  right  in  surmising  that  Essenic  writ- 
ings have  been  used  by  Paul  and  the  evangelists. 
Not  Jesus,  but  Paul,  is  the  cause  of  the  separation 
of  the  Jews  from  the  Christians.'"^ 

The  very  ancient  and  Eastern  doctrine  of  an  Angel- 

1  Colossians  i.  23. 

2  Bunsen,  Angel-Messiah,  p.  240.     London :  1867. 


100 


Messiah  had  been  applied  to  Gautama-Buddha,  who 
predicted  that  another  Avatar  would  come  upon  earth 
in  six  hundred  years  after  his  death.  This  time  had 
nearly  expired;  so  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  proclaimed 
as  the  expected  Messiah  by  these  Buddhist  Jews, 
and  the  sun-myths  were  interwoven  with  his  real 
history.  Jesus  unquestionably  possessed  a  nature 
as  divine  as  it  is  possible  for  a  human  being  to  pos- 
sess, or  he  would  not  otherwise  have  been  received 
as  the  Angel-Messiah  by  a  sect  so  pure  and  holy  as 
were  the  Essenes. 

Justin  Martyr,  in  his  dialogue  with  Trypho,  says 
that  there  exist  not  a  people,  civilized  or  semi-civi- 
lized, who  have  not  offered  up  prayers  in  the  name 
of  a  crucified  Saviour  to  the  Father  and  Creator  of 
all  things.^ 

Eusebius  says  that  the  names  of  Jesus  and  Christ 
were  both  known  and  honored  by  the  ancients.^ 

The  Rev.  Robert  Taylor,  in  writing  upon  this 
subject,  says :  — 

What  short  of  an  absolute  surrender  of  all  pre- 
tence to  an  existence  distinctive  and  separate  from 
Paganism  is  that  never-to-be-forgotten,  never-to-be- 
overlooked,  and  I  am  sure  never-to-be-answered  ca- 
pitulation of  their  [the  Christians']  Melito,  Bishop 
of  Sardis,  in  which  in  an  apology  delivered  to  the 
emperor,  Marcus  Antoninus,  in  the  year  170,  he  com- 

1  Hist.  Eccl.,  lib.  i.  ch.  iv. 

2  Ibid. 


lOI 


plains  of  certain  annoyances  and  vexations  which 
Christians  were  at  that  time  subjected  to,  and  for 
which  he  claims  redress  from  the  justice  and  piety 
of  that  emperor :  first,  on  the  score  that  none  of  his 
ancestors  had  ever  persecuted  the  professors  of  the 
Christian  faith ;  Nero  and  Domitian  only,  who  had 
been  equally  hostile  to  their  subjects  of  all  persua- 
sions, having  been  disposed  to  bring  the  Christian 
doctrine  into  hatred,  and  even  their  decrees  had 
been  reversed,  and  their  rash  enterprises  rebuked, 
by  the  godly  ancestors  of  Antoninus  himself.  .  .  . 
And  secondly,  the  good  bishop  claims  the  patronage 
of  the  emperor  for  the  Christian  religion,  which  he 
calls  our  philosophy,  on  account  of  its  high  antiquity^ 
as  having  been  imported  from  countries  lying  beyond 
the  limits  of  the  Roman  empire,  in  the  reign  of  his 
ancestor  Augustus,  who  found  its  importation  omi- 
nous of  good  fortune  to  his  government.^ 

Saint  Augustine  says  :  "  That  in  our  times  is  the 
Christian  Religion,  which  to  know  and  follow  is 
the  most  sure  and  certain  health,  called  according  to 
that  name,  but  not  according  to  the  thing  itself,  of 
which  it  is  the  name ;  for  the  thing  itself  which  is 
now  called  the  Christian  Religion  really  was 
known  to  the  ancients,  nor  was  wanting  at  any  time 
from  the  beginning  of  the  human  race  until  the  time 
when  Christ  came  in  the  flesh,  from  whence  the  true 
religion,  which  had  previously  existed,  began  to  be 

*  Diegesis,  p.  249.     Boston :  1872. 


102 


called  Christian  ;  and  this  in  our  days  is  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  not  as  having  been  wanting  in  former 
times,  but  as  having  in  later  times  received  this 
name."  ^ 

Eusebius,  the  great  champion  of  Christianity, 
admits  that  "that  which  is  called  the  Christian 
religion  is  neither  new  nor  strange,  but  —  if  it 
be  lawful  to  testify  the  truth — was  known  to  the 
ancients."  ^ 

Ammonius  Saccus  (a  Greek  philosopher,  founder 
of  the  Neoplatonic  school)  taught  that  Christianity 
and  Paganism,  when  rightly  understood,  differ  in  no 
essential  points,  but  had  a  common  origin,  and  are 
really  one  and  the  same  religion.^ 

Celsus,  the  Epicurean  philosopher,  wrote  that 
"  the  Christian  religion  contains  nothing  but  what 
Christians  hold  in  common  with  heathen  ;  nothing 
new."  * 

Justin  explains  this  in  the  following  manner  :  — 

It  having  reached  the  Devil's  ears  that  the  prophets 
had  foretold  that  Christ  would  come  ...  he  [the 
Devil]  set  the  heathen  poets  to  bring  forward  a  great 
many  who  should  be  called  sons  of  Jove  [that  is,  the 
sons  of  God]  ;  the  Devil  laying  his  scheme  in  this  to 
get  men 'to  imagine  that  the  true  histoB^r  of  Christ 

1  Opera  Augustini,  vol.  i.  p.  12.  Quoted  in  Taylor's  Diege- 
sis,  p.  42. 

2  Hist.  Eccl.,  lib.  2,  ch.  v. 
8  Taylor,  Diegesis,  p.  329. 

*  Justin,  Apol.  2.     See  Bellamy's  trans.,  p.  49. 


103 


was  of  the  same  character  as  the  prodigious  fables 
and  poetic  stories.^, 

Julius  Firmicius  says,  "  The  Devil  has  his 
Christs."  2 

The  following  remarkable  passage  has  been  pre- 
served to  us  by  Mosheim,  the  ecclesiastical  historian, 
in  the  life  of  Saint  Gregory,  surnamed  Thaumatur- 
gus,  that  is,  "  the  wonder-worker  "  :  — 

When  Gregory  perceived  that  the  simple  and  un- 
skilled multitude  persisted  in  their  worship  of  images, 
on  account  of  the  pleasure  and  sensual  gratifications 
which  they  enjoyed  at  the  Pagan  festivals,  he  granted 
them  a  permission  to  indulge  themselves  in  the  like 
pleasures  in  celebrating  the  memory  of  the  holy 
martyrs,  hoping  that  in  process  of  time  they  would 
return,  of  their  own  accord,  to  a  more  virtuous  and 
regular  course  of  life.^ 

Gregory  of  Nazianzus,  writing  to  Saint  Jerome, 
says  :  "  A  little  jargon  is  all  that  is  necessary  to  im- 
pose on  the  people.  The  less  they  comprehend  the 
more  they  admire.  Our  forefathers  and  doctors 
have  often  said,  not  what  they  thought,  but  what 
circumstances  and  necessity  dictated."^ 

1  Justin,  Apol.  2. 

2  Quoted  in  Taylor's  Diegesis,  p.  164. 

3  Mosheim,  vol.  i.  cent.  2,  p.  202. 

*  Hieron  ad.  Nep.  Quoted  in  Volney's  Ruins,  p.  177,  note. 
Boston  :  1872. 


104 

Eusebius,  who  is  our  chief  guide  for  the  early  his- 
tory of  the  Church,  confesses  that  he  was  by  no  means 
scrupulous  to  record  the  whole  truth  concerning  the 
early  Christians  in  the  various  works  which  he  has 
left  behind  him.^  Edward  Gibbon,  speaking  of  him, 
says :  — 

The  gravest  of  the  ecclesiastical  historians,  Euse- 
bius himself,  indirectly  confesses  that  he  has  related 
what  might  redound  to  the  glory,  and  that  he  has 
suppressed  all  that  could  tend  to  the  disgrace,  of 
religion.  Such  an  acknowledgment  will  naturally 
excite  a  suspicion  that  a  writer  who  has  so  openly 
violated  one  of  the  fundamental  laws  of  history 
has  not  paid  a  very  strict  regard  to  the  observance 
of  the  other ;  and  the  suspicion  will  derive  addi- 
tional credit  from  the  character  of  Eusebius,  which 
was  less  tinctured  with  credulity,  and  more  practised 
in  the  arts  of  courts,  than  that  of  almost  any  of  his 
contemporaries.  ^ 

Isaac  de  Casaubon,  the  great  ecclesiastical  scholar, 
says  :  — 

It  mightily  affects  me  to  see  how  many  there  were 
in  the  earliest  times  of  the  Church,  who  considered  it 
as  a  capital  exploit  to  lend  to  heavenly  truth  the 
help  of  their  own  inventions,  in  order  that  the  new 
doctrine  might  be  more  readily  received  by  the  wise 

1  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccl.,  ch.  viii.  p.  21. 

2  Gibbon,  Rome,  vol.  ii.  pp.  79,  80.     Philadelphia:  1876. 


105 


among  the  Gentiles.     These  officious  lies,  they  were 
wont  to  say,  were  devised  for  a  good  end.  ^ 

Caecilius,  in  the  Octavius  of  Minucius  Felix,  says  :  — 

All  these  fragments  of  crack-brained  opiniatry  and 
silly  solaces  played  off  in  the  sweetness  of  song  by 
deceitful  [Pagan]  poets,  by  you  too  credulous  crea- 
tures [that  is,  the  Christians]  have  been  shamefully 
reformed  and  made  over  to  your  own  god. 

Faustus,  writing  to  Saint  Augustine,  says  :  — 

You  have  substituted  your  agapae  for  the  sacri- 
fices of  -the  Pagans ;  for  their  idols  your  martyrs, 
whom  you  serve  with  the  very  same  honors.  You 
appease  the  shades  of  the  dead  with  wine  and  feasts  ; 
you  celebrate  the  solemn  festivals  of  the  Gentiles, 
their  calends,  and  their  solstices ;  and  as  to  their 
manners,  those  you  have  retained  without  any  altera- 
tion. Nothing  distinguishes  you  from  the  Pagans, 
except  that  you  hold  your  assemblies  apart  from 
them.^ 

The  learned  Christian  advocate,  M.  Turretin,  in 
describing  the  state  of  Christianity  in  the  fourth  cen- 
tury, says  "  that  it  was  not  so  much  the  empire  that 
was  brought  over  to  the  faith,  as  the  faith  that  was 

1  Quoted  in  Taylor's  Diegesis,  p.  44. 

'^  Quoted  by  Draper  in  Science  and  Religion,  p.  48.  New 
York:  1876. 


/ 


[o6 


brought  over  to  the  empire  ;  not  the  Pagans  who  were 
converted  to  Christianity,  but  Christianity  that  was 
converted  to  Paganism."  ^ 

Edward  Gibbon  says  in  regard  to  this  matter  :  — 

It  must  be  confessed  that  the  ministers  of  the 
Catholic  Church  imitated  the  profane  model  which 
they  were  impatient  to  destroy.  The  most  respecta- 
ble bishops  had  persuaded  themselves  that  the  ig- 
norant rustics  would  more  cheerfully  renounce  the 
superstitions  of  Paganism  if  they  found  some  re- 
semblance, some  compensation,  in  the  bosom  of 
Christianity.  The  religion  of  Constantine  achieved 
in  less  than  a  century  the  final  conquest  of  the  Roman 
empire  ;  but  the  victors  themselves  were  insensibly 
subdued  by  the  arts  of  their  vanquished  rivals.'^ 

Tertullian,  one  of  the  Christian  Fathers  (a.  d.  200), 
originally  a  Pagan,  and  at  one  time  Presbyter  of  the 
Christian  Church  in  Africa,  reasons  in  the  following 
manner  on  the  evidences  of  Christianity  :  — 

I  find  no  other  means  to  prove  myself  to  be  im- 
pudent with  success,  and  happily  a  fool,  than  by  my 
contempt  of  shame, — as,  for  instance,  I  maintain 
that  the  Son  of  God  was  born.  Why  am  I  not 
ashamed  of  maintaining  such  a  thing?  Why,  but 
because  it  is  itself  a  shameful  thing.  I  maintain 
that  the   Son   of   God  died.     Well,  that   is  wholly 

^  Taylor,  Diegesis,  p.  50. 

2  Gibbon,  Rome,  vol.  iii.  p.  163. 


I07 


credible,  because  it  is  monstrously  absurd.  I  main- 
tain that  after  having  been  buried  he  rose  again  ;  and 
that  I  take  to  be  manifestly  true,  because  it  was 
manifestly  impossible.'^ 

The  early  Christians  were  charged  with  being  a 
sect  of  sun-worshippers.^  The  Emperor  Hadrian 
could  see  no  difference  between  them  and  the  fol- 
lowers of  the  ancient  Egyptian  god  Serapis,  who  was 
the  Sun.  In  a  letter  to  the  Consul  Servianus,  the  Em- 
peror says  :  ^'  There  are  there  [in  Egypt]  Christians 
who  worship  Serapis  and  devoted  to  Serapis  are 
those  who  call  themselves  '  Bishops  of  Christ.'  "  ^ 

Mr.  King,  in  speaking  of  Serapis  and  his  worship- 
pers, says  :  "  There  is  very  good  reason  to  believe 
that  in  the  East  the  worship  of  Serapis  was  at  first 
combined  with  Christianity,  and  gradually  merged 
into  it,  with  an  entire  change  of  name,  no^  substancey 
carrying  with  it  many  of  its  ancient  notions  and 
rites."  ^ 

Again  he  says  :  *'  In  the  second  century  the  syn- 
cretistic  sects  that  had  sprung  up  in  Alexandria,  the 
very  hotbed  of  Gnosticism,  found  out  in  Serapis  a 
prophetic  type  of  Christ,  or  the  Lord  and  Creator  of 
all."  * 

1  Taylor,  Diegesis,  p.  326. 

2  Bonwick,  Egyptian  Belief,  p.  283. 

3  Giles,  Hebrew  and  Christian  Records,  vol.  ii.  p.  86.  Lon- 
don:  1877. 

*  King,  Gnostics,  p.  48.     London  :  1864. 
5  Ibid ,  p  68. 


[o8 


In  regard  to  the  charge  of  sun-worship,  Mr.  Bon- 
wick  observes:  "There  were  many  circumstances 
that  gave  color  to  the  accusation,  since  in  the  second 
century  they  had  left  the  simple  teaching  of  Jesus 
for  a  host  of  assimilations  with  surrounding  Pagan 
myths  and  symbols.  Still,  the  defence  made  by  Ter- 
tuUian,  one  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Church,  was,  to 
say  the  least  of  it,  rather  obscure.  '  Others,'  wrote  he, 
*  believe  the  sun  to  be  our  god.  If  this  be  so,  we 
must  not  be  ranked  with  the  Persians;  though  we  wor- 
ship not  the  sun  painted  on  a  piece  of  linen,  because 
in  truth  we  have  him  in  our  own  hemisphere.  Lastly, 
this  suspicion  arises  from  hence  because  it  is  well 
known  that  we  pray  toward  the  quarter  of  the  east.' "  ^ 

The  Essenes  always  turned  to  the  east  to  pray. 
They  met  once  a  week,  and  spent  the  night  in  sing- 
ing hymns,  etc.,  until  the  rising  of  the  sun.  They 
then  retired  to  their  cells,  after  saluting  one  another. 
Pliny  says  the  Christians  of  Bithynia  met  before  it  was 
light,  and  sang  hymns  to  Christ,  as  to  a  God.  After 
their  service  they  saluted  one  another.  It  is  just 
what  the  Persian  Magi,  who  were  sun-worshippers, 
were  in  the  habit  of  doing. 

There  are  not  many  circumstances  more  striking 
than  that  of  Christ  being  originally  worshipped  under 
the  form  of  a  lamb.  The  worship  of  the  constella- 
tion Aries  was  the  worship  of  the  sun  in  his  passage 
through  that  sign.^    This  constellation  was  called  by 

1  Egyptian  Belief,  p.  282.     London  :  1878. 

2  Bible  Myths,  p.  503. 


109 

the  ancients  the  Lamb,  or  the  Ram.  It  was  also  called 
'*  the  Saviour,"  and  was  said  to  save  mankind  from 
their  sins.  It  was  always  honored  with  the  appella- 
tion of  DominuSy  or  "  Lord."  It  was  called  by  the 
ancients  "  the  Lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away  the 
sins  of  the  world."  The  devotees  addressed  it  in 
their  litany,  constantly  repeating  the  words,  "  O  Lamb 
of  God,  that  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world,  have 
mercy  upon  us  ;  grant  us  thy  peace." 

On  an  ancient  medal  of  the  Phoenicians,  brought 
by  Dr.  Clark  from  Citium  (and  described  in  his 
"  Travels,"  vol.  ii.  ch.  xi.),  this  "  Lamb  of  God  "  is 
described  with  the  cross  and  rosary. 

Yearly  the  sun-god,  as  the  zodiacal  horse  (Aries), 
was  supposed  by  the  Vedic  Aryans  to  die  to  save  all 
flesh.  Hence  the  practice  of  sacrificing  horses.  The 
"  guardian  spirits  "  of  the  Prince  Sakya  Buddha  sing 
the  following  hymn  :  — 

Once,  when  thou  wast  the  white  horse, 

In  pity  for  the  sufferings  of  man, 

Thou  didst  fly  across  heaven  to  the  region  of  the  evil  demons, 

To  serve  the  happiness  of  mankind. 

Persecutions  without  end, 

Revilings  and  many  prisons, 

Death  and  murder,  — 

These  hast  thou  suffered  with  love  and  patience, 

Forgiving  thine  executioners.^ 

Although  Buddha  is  said  to  have  expired  peacefully 
at  the  foot  of  a  tree,  he  is  nevertheless  described  as 

1  Buddha  and  Early  Buddhism,  p.  93. 


no 


a  suffering  Saviour,  who,  when  his  mind  was  moved 
with  pity,  gave  his  hfe  Uke  grass  for  the  sake  of 
others.-^ 

The  oldest  representation  of  Jesus  Christ  is  a 
figure  of  a  lamb,'-^  to  which  sometimes  a  vase  was 
added,  into  which  the  blood  of  the  lamb  flowed.  A 
simple  cross,  which  was  the  symbol  of  eternal  life 
among  the  ancients,  was  sometimes  placed  alongside 
of  the  lamb.  In  the  course  of  time  the  lamb  was  put 
on  the  cross,  as  the  ancient  Israelites  had  put  the 
Paschal  lamb  centuries  before.  Jesus  was  also  repre- 
sented in  early  art  as  the  "Good  Shepherd,"  —  that 
is,  as  a  young  man  with  a  lamb  on  his  shoulders,  just 
as  the  Pagan  Apollo,  Mercury,  and  others  were 
represented  centuries  before. 

Early  Christian  art,  such  as  the  bas-reliefs  on  sar- 
cophagi, gave  but  one  solitary  incident  from  the  story 
of  Our  Lord's  Passion,  and  that  utterly  divested  of 
all  circumstances  of  suffering.  Our  Lord  is  repre- 
sented as  young  and  beautiful,  free  from  bonds,  with 
no  "  accursed  tree  "  on  his  shoulders.^ 

The  crucifixion  is  not  one  of  the  subjects  of 
early  Christianity.  The  death  of  our  Lord  was  repre- 
sented by  various  types,  but  never  in  its  actual  form. 
The  earliest  instances  of  the  crucifixion  are  found 
in  illustrated  manuscripts  of  various  countries,  and 
in  ivory  and  enamelled  images.     Some  of  these  are 

1  Max  Miiller,  Science  of  Religion,  p,  224.     London  :  1873. 

2  Jameson,  Our  Lord  in  Art,  vol.  ii.  p.  137.     London  :  1864. 
'  Ibid.,  vol.  ii.  p.  317. 


Ill 


ascertained,  by  historical  or  by  internal  evidence,  to 
have  been  executed  in  the  ninth  century.  There  is 
one  also,  of  an  extraordinarily  rude  and  fantastic 
character,  in  a  manuscript  in  the  ancient  library  of 
St.  Galle,  which  is  ascertained  to  be  of  the  eighth 
century.  At  all  events,  there  seems  to  be  no  just 
ground  at  present  for  assigning  an  earlier  date.^ 

Not  until  the  pontificate  of  Agathon  (a.  d.  608) 
was  Christ  represented  as  a  man  on  a  cross.  Dur- 
ing the  reign  of  Constantine  Pogonatus,  by  the  Sixth 
Synod  of  Constantinople  (Canon  82)  it  was  ordained 
that  instead  of  the  ancient  symbol,  which  had  been 
the  lamb,  the  figure  of  a  man  nailed  to  a  cross 
should  be  represented.  All  this  was  confirmed  by 
Pope  Adrian  I.^ 

Rev.  J.  P.  Lundy,  in  speaking  of  the  fact  that  there 
are  no  early  representations  of  Jesus  suffering  on  the 
cross,  says :  "  Why  should  a  fact  so  well  known  to 
the  heathen  as  the  crucifixion  be  concealed  ?  And 
yet  its  actual  realistic  representation  never  once  oc- 
curs in  the  monuments  of  Christianity  for  more  than 
six  or  seven  centuries."  * 

The  holy  Father  Minucius  Felix,  in  his  Octavius, 
written  as  late  as  a.  d.  211,  indignantly  resents  the 
supposition  that  the  sign  of  the  cross  should  be  con- 
sidered exclusively  a  Christian  symbol ;  and  represents 
his  advocate  of  the  Christian  argument  as  retorting 

^  Jameson,  Our  Lord  in  Art,  vol.  ii.  p.  137. 

2  Quoted  in  Higc^ins's  Anacalypsis,  vol.  ii.  p.  3. 

3  Monumental  Christianity,  p.  246.     New  York  :  1876. 


112 


on  an  infidel  opponent  thus  :  "  As  for  the  adoration 
of  crosses  which  you  [Pagans]  object  to  against  us 
[Christians],  I  must  tell  you  that  we  neither  adore 
crosses  nor  desire  them ;  you  it  is,  ye  Pagans,  who 
worship  wooden  gods,  who  are  the  most  likely  people 
to  adore  wooden  crosses,  as  being  parts  of  the  same 
substance  as  your  deities.  For  what  else  are  your 
ensigns,  flags,  and  standards,  but  crosses,  gilt  and 
beautified  ?  Your  victorious  trophies  not  only  repre- 
sent a  cross,  but  a  cross  with  a  man  upon  it."  ^ 

Tertullian,  a  Christian  Father  of  the  second  and 
third  centuries,  in  writing  to  the  Pagans,  says :  — 

The  origin  of  your  gods  is  derived  from  figures 
moulded  on  a  cross.  All  those  rows  of  images  on 
your  standards  are  the  appendages  of  crosses ;  those 
hangings  on  your  standards  and  banners  are  the 
robes  of  crosses.^ 

It  would  appear  that  the  crucifixion  was  not  com- 
monly believed  in  among  early  Christians.  It  is 
contradicted  three  times  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 
''Whom  ye  slew  and  hanged  on  a  tree"  (Acts  v. 
30),  says  Peter  of  Jesus.  He  states  again  (x.  39) 
*•  Whom  they  slew  and  hanged  on  a  tree  ; "  and  re- 
peats (xiii.  29),  "They  took  him  down  from  the  tree 
and  laid  him  in  a  sepulchre."  There  is  no  crucifix- 
ion, as  commonly  understood,  in  these  statements. 

1  Taylor,  Diegesis,  pp.  198,  199. 

2  Bonwick,  Egyptian  Belief,  p.  217. 


ii3 

Outside  of  the  New  Testament,  there  is  no  evi- 
dence whatever  in  book,  inscription,  or  monument, 
that  Jesus  was  either  scourged  or  crucified  under 
Pontius  Pilate.  Josephus,  Tacitus,  Plinius,  Philo,  nor 
any  of  their  contemporaries,  have  referred  to  the  fact 
of  this  crucifixion,  or  express  any  belief  thereon.  In 
the  Jewish  Talmud,  Jesus  is  not  referred  to  as  the 
crucified  one,  but  as  the  "hanged  one."^  Elsewhere 
it  is  narrated  that  he  was  stoned  to  death.^ 

Saint  Irenaeus  (a.d.  192),  one  of  the  most  cele- 
brated, most  respected,  and  most  quoted  of  the 
Christian  Fathers,  tells  us  on  the  authority  of  his 
master,  Polycarp,  who  had  it  from  Saint  John  him- 
self, and  from  others,  that  Jesus  was  not  crucified  at 
the  time  stated  in  the  Gospels,  but  that  he  lived  to 
be  nearly  fifty  years  old. 

The  following  is  a  portion  of  the  passage  :  — 

As  the  chief  part  of  thirty  years  belongs  to  youth, 
and  every  one  will  confess  him  to  be  such  till  the 
fortieth  year  ;  but  from  the  fortieth  he  declines  into 
old  age,  which  our  Lord  [Jesus]  having  attained,  he 
taught  us  the  Gospel,  and  all  the  elders  who,  in  Asia 
assembled  with  John,  the  disciples  of  the  Lord  tes- 
tify; and  as  John  himself  had  taught  them.  And 
he  [John  ?]  remained  with  them  till  the  time  of 
Trajan.     And  some  of  them  saw  not  only  John  but 

1  Wise,  The  Martyrdom  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  p.  100. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  106. 

8 


114 


other  Apostles,  and  heard  the  same  thing  from  them, 
and  bear  the  same  testimony  to  this  revelation.^ 

In  John  viii.  56,  Jesus  is  made  to  say  to  the  Jews : 
"  Your  father  Abraham  rejoiced  to  see  my  day ;  and 
he  saw  it  and  was  glad."  Then  said  the  Jews  unto 
him :  "  Thou  art  not  yet  fifty  years  old,  and  hast 
thou  seen  Abraham  ?  "  If  Jesus  was  then  only  thirty 
or  thereabouts,  the  Jews  would  naturally  have  said, 
"  Thou  art  not  yet  forty  years  of  age." 

There  was  a  tradition  among  the  early  Christians 
that  Annas  was  high  priest  when  Jesus  was  crucified. 
This  is  evident  from  the  Acts  (iv.  5).  Now,  Annas, 
or  Annias,  was  not  high-priest  until  the  year  48  a.  d.^ 
Therefore,  if  Jesus  was  crucified  at  that  time,  he 
must  have  been  about  fifty  years  of  age.  It  is  true 
there  was  another  Annas,  high-priest  at  Jerusalem  ; 
but  that  was  when  Gratus  was  procurator  of  Judaea, 
some  twelve  or  fifteen  years  before  Pontius  Pilate 
held  the  same  office.^ 

According  to  Dio  Cassius,  Plutarch,  Strabo,  and 
others,  there  existed  in  the  time  of  Herod  among  the 
Roman-Syrian  heathen  a  widespread  and  deep  sym- 
pathy for  a  "crucified  King  of  the  Jews."  This  was 
the  youngest  son  of  Aristobulus,  the  heroic  Maccabee. 
In  the  year  43  b.  c.  we  find  this  young  man  —  An- 
tigonus  —  in  Palestine  claiming  the  crown,  his  cause 

1  Quoted  in  Anacalypsis,  vol.  ii.  p.  121. 

2  Josephus,  Antiquities,  bk.  xx.  ch.  v.  p.  2. 
8  Ibid.,  bk.  xvii.  ch.  ii.  p.  3. 


115 

having  been  declared  just  by  Julius  Caesar.  Allied 
with  the  Parthians,  he  maintained  himself  in  his 
royal  position  for  six  years  against  Herod  and  Mark 
Antony.  At  last,  after  an  heroic  life  and  reign,  he 
fell  into  the  hands  of  this  Roman.  '*  Antony  now 
gave  the  kingdom  to  a  certain  Herod,  and  having 
stretched  Antigonus  on  a  cross  and  scourged  him, — 
a  thing  never  done  before  to  any  other  king  by  the 
Romans,  —  he  put  him  to  death."  ^ 

The  fact  that  all  prominent  historians  of  those 
days  mention  this  extraordinary  occurrence,  and  the 
manner  in  which  it  was  done,  shows  that  it  was  con- 
sidered one  of  Mark  Antony's  worst  crimes,  and  that 
the  sympathy  with  the  "  Crucified  King  "  was  wide- 
spread and  profound.^  Some  writers  think  that  there 
is  a  connection  between  this  and  the  Gospel  story  ; 
that  Jesus  was  in  a  certain  measure  put  in  the  place 
of  Antigonus,  just  as  Herod  was  put  in  the  place  of 
King  Kansa,  who  sought  to  destroy  Crishna. 

In  the  first  two  centuries  the  professors  of  Chris- 
tianity were  divided  into  many  sects  ;  but  these  might 
all  be  resolved  into  two  divisions,  —  one  consisting 
of  Nazarines,  Ebionites,  and  orthodox  ;  the  other  of 
Gnostics,  under  which  all  the  remaining  sects  ar- 
ranged themselves.  The  former  are  supposed  to 
have  believed  in  Jesus  crucified,  in  the  common  lit- 
eral acceptation  of  the  term  ;  the  latter,  —  believers 
in  Christ  as  an  ^on,  —  though  they  admitted   the 

1  Dio  Cassius,  bk.  xlix.  p.  405. 

2  The  Martyrdom  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  p.  106. 


Ii6 


crucifixion,  considered  it  to  have  been  in  some  mystic 
way,  perhaps  what  might  have  been  called  spiritu- 
aiiter,  as  it  is  regarded  in  the  Revelation  ;  but,  not- 
withstanding the  different  opinions  they  held,  they 
all  denied  that  the  Christ  did  really  die,  in  the  literal 
acceptation  of  the  term,  on  the  cross.  Mr.  King,  in 
speaking  of  the  Gnostic  Christians,  says  :  — 

Their  chief  doctrines  had  been  held  for  centuries 
before  in  many  of  the  cities  in  Asia  Minor.  There, 
it  is  probable,  they  first  came  into  existence,  as 
MysfcBf  upon  the  establishment  of  direct  intercourse 
with  India,  under  the  Seleucidae  and  Ptolemies.  The 
college  of  Essenes  and  Megabyzae  at  Ephesus,  the 
Ophites  of  Thrace,  the  Cretans  of  Crete,  are  all  merely 
branches  of  one  antique  and  common  religion,  and 
that  originally  Asiatic* 

Several  of  the  texts  of  the  Gospel  histories  were 
quoted  with  great  plausibility  by  the  Gnostics  in 
support  of  their  doctrines.  The  story  of  Jesus 
passing  through  the  midst  of  the  Jews  when  they 
were  about  to  cast  him  headlong  from  the  brow  of  a 
hill  (Luke  iv.  29,  30),  and  when  they  were  going  to 
stone  him  (John  iii.  59  ;  x.  31,  39),  were  not  easily 
refuted. 

There  are  those  who  consider  Jesus  Christ,  not  as 
a  person,  but  as  a  spiritual  principle,  personified  by 
the  Essenes,  as  the  ancients  personified  the  sun, 
and  gave  to  it  an  experience   similar  to  their  own. 

1  King,  Gnostics,  p.  i. 


117 


According  to  Josephus  and  Philo,^  the  Essene  doc- 
trines were  kept  secret  with  the  greatest  possible 
care.  The  members  of  the  brotherhood  were  ad- 
mitted into  the  assembly  only  after  a  three  years' 
novitiate,  and  they  were  then  not  only  sworn  to 
secrecy,  but  were  sworn  also  not  to  commit  any  por- 
tion of  their  doctrine  to  writing,  except  in  allegory 
and  symbolism,  "  as  they  received  it ; "  for  they 
were  instructed  only  by  means  of  allegories  and  sym- 
bolic representations.  It  was  their  custom  to  as- 
semble and  listen  to  interpretations  of  the  Hebrew 
sacred  writings  from  the  elders  among  them.  In  re- 
gard to  this  practice  Philo  says  :  — 

And  these  explanations  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures 
are  delivered  by  mystic  expressions  in  allegories  ;  for 
the  whole  of  the  Law  appears  to  these  men  to  re- 
semble a  living  animal,  and  its  express  command- 
ments seem  to  be  the  Body,  and  the  invisible  meaning 
under  and  lying  beneath  the  plain  words  resembles 
the  Soul,  in  which  the  rational  soul  begins  most  ex- 
cellently to  contemplate  what  belongs  to  itself,  as  in 
a  mirror,  beholding  in  these  very  words  the  exceed- 
ing beauty  of  the  sentiments,  and  unfolding  and  ex- 
plaining the  symbols  and  bringing  the  secret  meaning 
to  the  light  of  all  who  are  able,  by  the  light  of  a 

1  See  Josephus,  Antiquities,  bk.  ii.  §  8  ;  also  Wars,  bk.  xviii. 
§  I.  Philo  on  the  Virtuous  being  also  Free  (Bohn's  ed.,  vol.  iii. 
pp.  523  et  seq.),  also  Fragments  (vol.  iv.),  and  Essay  on  the 
Contemplative  Life  (vol.  iv.). 


ii8 


slight  intimation,  to  perceive  what  is  unseen  by  what 
is  visible. 

In  another  place  the  Essenes  are  said  "  to  take  up 
the  Sacred  Scriptures  and  philosophize  concerning 
them,  investigating  the  allegories  of  their  national 
philosophy,  since  they  look  upon  their  literal  ex- 
pressions as  symbols  of  some  secret  meaning  of 
nature,  intended  to  be  conveyed  by  those  figurative  " 
expressions. 

They  are  said  also  to  have  writings  of  ancient 
men,  who,  having  been  the  founders  of  one  sect  or 
another,  have  left  behind  them  many  memorials  of 
the  allegoric  system  of  writing  and  explanation, 
and  they  imitate  the  general  fashion  of  their  sect,  so 
that  they  do  not  occupy  themselves  solely  in  con- 
templation, but  they  likewise  compose  psalms  and 
hymns  to  God  in  every  kind  of  metre  and  melody 
imaginable.! 

In  the  Visions,  Commands,  and  Similitudes  of  Her- 
mas  —  one  of  the  Apocryphal  New  Testament  books 
that  was  discarded  by  the  Athanasian  Council,  but 
which  was  previously  accepted  by  Christians  —  we 
find  the  Law  of  God  spoken  of  as  the  Son  of  God. 
In  the  eighth  Similitude  a  mystical  shepherd  is  in- 
troduced as  expounding  a  Vision  in  these  words  :  — 

This  great  tree  which  covers  the  plains  and  moun- 
tains, and  all  of  the  earth,  is  the  Law  of  God,  pub- 

1  Hitchcock,  Christ  the  Spirit,  pp.  34-37. 


119 


lished  throughout  the  whole  world.  Now,  this  Law 
is  the  Son  of  God,  who  is  preached  to  all  the  ends 
of  the  earth.  The  people  that  stand  under  its 
shadow  are  those  who  have  heard  his  preaching  and 
believe,  etc. 

In  another  place  (in  the  ninth  Similitude)  an 
Angel  IS  represented  as  expounding  a  Vision,  and 
says  :  "  I  will  show  thee  all  those  things  which  the 
Spirit  spake  to  thee  under  the  figure  of  a  Church. 
For  that  Spirit  is  the  Son  of  God."  "In  these 
Visions  of  Hermas,"  says  Major-General  Ethan  A. 
Hitchcock,  "which  may  possibly  be  a  genuine  Essene 
work,  the  Son  of  God  is  spoken  of  in  several  ways  : 
here,  we  see,  as  the  Law  of  God  ;  but  manifestly  not 
the  written  Law,  for  that  was  not  published  to  all 
the  ends  of  the  earth.  The  Spirit  of  the  Law  —  that 
is,  the  Life  of  it  —  was  therefore  referred  to  ;  for  this 
is  '  preached '  in  the  consciences  of  all  men  through- 
out the  world."  ^ 

This  would  account  for  the  fact  that  no  hint  is 
given  in  the  New  Testament  of  Christ's  appearance. 
Mrs.  Jameson,  speaking  on  this  subject,  says :  — 

We  search  in  vain  for  the  lightest  evidence  of  his 
[Christ's]  human  individual  semblance,  in  the  writings 
of  those  disciples  who  knew  him  so  well.  In  this 
instance  the  instincts  of  earthly  affection  seem  to 
have   been   mysteriously  overruled.     He  whom   all 

1  Christ  the  Spirit,  p.  41.     New  York  :  1861. 


120 


races  were  to  call  brother  was  not  to  be  too  closely 
associated  with  the  particular  lineaments  of  any  one. 
Saint  John,  the  beloved  disciple,  could  lie  on  the 
breast  of  Jesus  with  all  the  freedom  of  fellowship, 
but  not  even  he  has  left  a  word  to  indicate  what 
manner  of  man  was  the  Divine  Master  after  the  flesh. 
We  are  therefore  left  to  imagine  the  expression  most 
befitting  the  character  of  him  who  took  upon  himself 
our  likeness,  and  looked  at  the  woes  and  sins  of 
mankind  through  the  eyes  of  our  mortality.^ 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Geikie  says,  in  his  Life  of  Christ:  — 

No  hint  is  given  in  the  New  Testament  of  Christ's 
appearance  ;  and  the  early  Church,  in  the  absence  of 
all  guiding  facts,  had  to  fall  back  on  imagination. 
In  the  first  years  the  Christian  Church  fancied  its 
Lord's  visage  and  form  marred  more  than  those  of 
other  men ;  and  that  he  must  have  had  no  attrac- 
tions of  personal  beauty.  Justin  Martyr  (a.  D.  150- 
160)  speaks  of  him  as  without  beauty  or  attractive- 
ness, and  of  mean  appearance.  Clement  of  Alex- 
dria  (a.  d.  200)  describes  him  as  of  an  uninviting 
appearance,  and  almost  repulsive.  Tertullian  (a.  d. 
200-210)  says  he  had  not  even  ordinary  human 
beauty,  far  less  heavenly.  Origen  (a.  d.  230)  went 
so  far  as  to  say  that  he  was  "small  in  body  and  de- 
formed, as  well  as  low  born,  and  that  his  only  beauty 
was  in  his  soul  and  life."  ^ 

1  History  of  Our  Lord  in  Art,  vol.  i.  p.  31. 

2  Geikie,  Life  of  Christ,  vol.  i.  p.  151. 


121 


One  of  the  favorite  ways  of  depicting  him  finally 
came  to  be  under  the  figure  of  a  beautiful  and  ador- 
able youth,  of  about  fifteen  or  eighteen  years  of  age, 
beardless,  with  a  sweet  expression  of  countenance, 
and  long  and  abundant  hair  flowing  over  his  shoulders. 
His  brow  is  sometimes  encircled  by  a  diadem  or 
bandeau,  like  a  young  priest  of  the  Pagan  gods ;  that 
is,  in  fact,  the  favorite  figure.  On  sculptured  sar- 
cophagi, in  fresco  paintings  and  mosaics,  Christ  is 
thus  represented  as  a  graceful  youth,  just  as  Apollo 
was  figured  by  the  Pagans,  and  as  angels  are 
represented  by  Christians.^ 

The  following  letter,  addressed  to  the  senate  of 
Rome,  is  said  to  have  been  written  by  Publius  Len- 
tulus,  Roman  Procurator  of  Judaea  in  the  reign  of 
Tiberius  Caesar. 

There  has  appeared  in  these  days  a  man  of  ex- 
traordinary virtue,  named  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  yet 
living  among  us,  and  by  the  people,  generally,  ac- 
cepted of  as  a  prophet,  but  by  some  he  is  called  the 
Son  of  God.  He  raises  the  dead  and  cures  all  man- 
ner of  diseases.  A  man  tall  and  comely  of  stature, 
with  a  very  reverend  countenance,  such  as  the  be- 
holders cannot  but  love  and  fear ;  his  hair  of  the 
color  of  a  chestnut  full  ripe,  and  plain  down  to  his 
ears ;  but  from  thence  downward  more  orient  of 
color,  waving  about  his  shoulders.  In  the  midst  of 
his  head  goeth  a  seam,  or  partition  of  his  hair,  after 

1  J.  P.  Lundy,  Monumental  Christianity,  p.  231. 


122 


the  manner  of  the  Nazarites ;  his  forehead  very  plain 
and  smooth,  his  face  without  spot  or  wrinkle,  beauti- 
ful with  a  comely  red,  his  nose  and  mouth  so  formed 
that  nothing  can  be  found  fault  with ;  his  beard 
somewhat  thick,  agreeable  to  the  hair  of  his  head, 
not  of  any  great  length,  but  forked  in  the  midst ;  of 
an  inoffensive  look  ;  his  eyes  blue,  clear,  and  quick. 
In  reproving  he  is  severe  ;  in  admonishing  courteous 
and  friendly;  pleasant  in  speech,  but  mixed  with 
gravity.  It  cannot  be  remembered  that  any  have 
seen  him  laugh,  but  many  have  observed  him  to 
weep.  In  proportion  of  body  well  shaped,  and 
a  man  for  singular  beauty  exceeding  the  rest  of 
mankind.-^ 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  reddish,  waving,  abun- 
dant hair  resembles  the  sun-gods,  nearly  all  of  them 
being  represented  with  an  abundance  of  long,  wav- 
ing red  or  yellow  hair,  denoting  the  rays  of  the 
sun. 

The  Imperial  Russian  Collection  boasts  of  a  head 
of  Christ  which  is  said  to  be  very  ancient.  It  is  a 
fine  intaglio  on  emerald.  Mr.  King  says  of  it :  "  It 
is  really  a  head  of  Serapis,  seen  in  front  and  crowned 
with  Persia  boughs,  easily  mistaken  for  thorns,  though 
the  bushel  on  the  head  leaves  no  doubt  as  to  the  real 
personage."  ^ 

"  There  can  be  no  doubt,"  says  Mr.  King,  "  that 

1  The  Vernon  Gallery  of  British  Art,  No.  xxxviii. 

2  King's  Gnostics,  p.  137. 


123 


the  head  of  Serapis,^  marked  as  the  face  is  by  a 
grave  and  pensive  majesty,  supplied  the  first  idea  for 
the  conventional  portraits  of  the  Saviour."  ^ 

When  the  temple  of  Serapis,  at  Alexandria,  Egypt, 
was  demolished  by  one  of  the  Christian  Emperors, 
there  was  found  underneath  the  foundation  a  stone 
on  which  was  engraven  hieroglyphics  in  the  form  of 
a  cross.  They  were  said,  by  some  of  the  Greeks  who 
had  been  converted  to  Christianity,  to  signify  "  the 
Life  to  come."  ^ 

Clement  of  Alexandria  assures  us  in  his  Siromatis 
that  all  those  who  entered  into  the  temple  of  Serapis 
w'ere  obliged  to  wear  on  their  persons,  in  a  conspic- 
uous situation,  the  name  of  I-ha-ho  or  I-ha-hou^  which 
signifies  the  God  Eternal,  The  learned  Abbe  Bazin 
tells  us  that  the  name  esteemed  the  most  sacred  by 
the  Egyptians  was  that  which  the  Hebrews  adopted, 

Y-HA-HO.'* 

It  is  said  that  when  the  vain  Thulis  appealed  to 
Serapis,  the  god  replied  :  "  First  God,  afterward  the 
Word,  and  with  them  the  Holy  Spirit"  ^ 

Rufinus  tells  us  that  the  Egyptians  are  said  to 
have  the  sign  of  the  Lord's  cross  among  those  let- 
ters which  are  called  sacerdotal,  —  the  interpretation 

1  A  representation  of  Serapis  may  be  seen  in  Murray's 
Manual  of  Mythology. 

2  Gnostics,  p.  68. 

3  Socrat.  Hist.  Eccl.,  v.  ch.  17,  also  Sozomen,  Hist.  Eccl.,  vii. 
ch.  14. 

*  Higgins,  Anacalypsis,  vol.  ii.  p.  17. 
^  Ibid.,  voL.ii.  p.  14. 


124 

being,  "the  Life  to  come."^  They  certainly  adored 
the  cross  with  profound  veneration.  This  sacred 
symbol  is  to  be  found  on  many  of  their  ancient 
monuments,  some  of  which  may  be  seen  at  the 
British  Museum.  In  the  London  University  a  cross 
upon  a  Calvary  is  to  be  seen  upon  the  breast  of 
one  of  the  Egyptian  mummies.  Many  of  the  Egyp- 
tian images  hold  a  cross  in  their  hand.  There  is 
one  now  extant  of  the  Egyptian  Saviour,  Horus, 
holding  a  cross  in  his  hand,  and  he  is  represented 
as  an  infant  on  his  mother's  knee,  with  a  cross  on 
the  back  of  the  seat  they  occupy.^ 

The  commonest  of  all  the  Egyptian  crosses,  tKe 
crux  ansata^  was  adopted  by  the  Christians.  When 
the  Saviour  Osiris  is  represented  holding  out  the 
crux  ansata  to  a  mortal,  it  signifies  that  the  person 
to  whom  he  presents  it  has  put  off  mortality  and 
entered  on  the  life  to  come.^ 

The  Greek  cross  and  the  cross  of  Saint  Anthony 
are  also  found  on  Egyptian  monuments.  A  figure  of 
a  Shari  from  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson's  book  (fig.  14) 
has  a  necklace  round  his  throat,  from  which  depends 
a  pectoral  cross.  Another  Egyptian  cross  which  is 
apparently  intended  for  a  Latin  cross  rising  out  of 
a  heart,  like  the  mediaeval  emblem  of  cor  in  cruce^ 
crux  in  corde,  is  the  hieroglyph  of  goodness.* 

1  Hist.  Eccl.,  ii.  ch.  29. 

2  R.  P.  Knight,  Ancient  Art  and  Mythology,  p.  58. 

*  Curious  Myths,  p.  385. 

*  H.  M.  Westrop,  in  Gentleman's  Magazine,  N.  s.  vol.  xv. 
p.  80. 


125 

The'  ancient  Egyptians  were  in  the  habit  of  putting 
a  cross  on  their  sacred  cakes,  just  as  Christians  of 
the  present  day  on  Good  Friday.  The  plan  of  the 
chamber  of  some  Egyptian  sepulchres  has  the  form 
of  a  cross.  The  cross  was  worn  by  Egyptian  women 
as  an  ornament  as  it  is  worn  to-day  by  Christians. 

The  ensigns  and  standards  carried  by  the  Persians 
during  their  wars  with  Alexander  the  Great  (b.  c. 
335)  ^'^^^  made  in  the  form  of  a  cross.-^ 

Sir  Robert  Ker  Porter,  in  his  very  valuable  work 
entitled  Travels  in  Georgia^  Persia^  Armenia^  and 
Ancient  Babylonia,  gives  a  representation  of  a  bas- 
relief  of  very  ancient  antiquity,  which  he  found  at 
Nashi-Roustam,  or  the  Mountain  of  Sepulchres.  It 
represents  a  combat  between  two  horsemen  —  Ba- 
haram-Gour,  one  of  the  old  Persian  kings,  and  a 
Tartar  prince.  Baharam-Gour  is  in  the  act  of 
charging  his  opponent  with  a  spear,  and  behind  him, 
scarcely  visible,  appears  an  almost  effaced  form 
which  must  have  been  his  standard-bearer,  as  the 
ensign  is  very  plainly  to  be  seen.  This  ensign  is  a 
cross.  There  is  another  representation  of  the  same 
subject  to  be  seen  in  a  bas-relief,  which  shows  the 
standard-bearer  and  his  cross-ensign  very  plainly. 
This  bas-relief  belongs  to  a  period  when  the  Arsa- 
cedian  kings  governed  Persia,  which  was  within  a 
century  after  the  time  of  Alexander,  and  consequently 
more  than  two  centuries  b.  c.^ 

1  Bonwick,  Egyptian  Belief,  p.  217.    2  Vol.  i.  p.  545,  pi.  xxi. 
3  P.  529,  pi.  xvi. 


126 


Sir  Robert  also  found  at  this  place  sculptures  cut 
in  the  solid  rock  which  are  in  the  form  of  crosses. 
These  belong  to  the  early  race  of  Persian  monarchs, 
whose  dynasty  terminated  under  the  sword  of  Alex- 
ander the  Great.^  At  the  foot  of  Mount  Nakshi- 
Rajab  he  also  found  bas-reliefs,  among  which  were 
two  figures  carrying  a  cross-standard.  It  is  coeval 
with  the  sculptures  found  at  Nashi-Roustam,  and 
therefore  belongs  to  a  period  before  Alexander's 
invasion. 

The  ancient  Babylonians  honored  the  cross  as  a 
religious  symbol.  It  is  found  on  their  oldest  monu- 
ments. Anu,  a  deity  who  stood  at  the  head  of 
Babylonian  mythology,  had  a  cross  for  his  sign  or 
symbol.  It  is  also  the  symbol  of  the  Babylonian 
god  Bal.^  A  cross  hangs  on  the  breast  of  Tiglath 
Pileser,  in  the  colossal  tablet  from  Nimrood,  now  in 
the  British  Museum.  Another  king  from  the  ruins 
of  Nineveh  wears  a  Maltese  cross  on  his  bosom ; 
and  another  from  the  hall  of  Nisroch  carries  an 
emblematic  necklace  to  which  a  Maltese  cross  is 
attached.^  The  crux  ansata  was  also  a  sacred  sym- 
bol among  the  Babylonians.  It  occurs  repeatedly  on 
their  cylinders,  bricks,  and  gems. 

The  cross  has  been  honored  in  India  from  time 
immemorial,  and  was  a  symbol  of  mysterious  sig- 
nificance in   Brahminical  iconography.     It  was  the 

1  PI.  xvii. 

'^  Egyptian  Belief,  p.  218. 

2  Bonomi,  Nineveh  and  its  Palaces,  pp.  303,  333,  404. 


symbol  of  the  Hindoo  god  Agni,  the  Light  of  the 
World} 

It  is  placed  by  Miiller  in  his  Glauben,  Wissen, 
und  Kunst  der  alien  Hindus,  in  the  hands  of  Siva, 
Brahma,  Vishnu,  Yavashtri,  and  Jarma.  Fra  Paolino 
tells  us  it  was  used  by  the  ancient  kings  of  India  as 
a  sceptre.^ 

Two  of  the  principal  pagodas  of  India  —  Benares 
and  Mathura  —  were  erected  in  the  forms  of  vast 
crosses.^ 

In  the  Jamalgiri  remains  and  other  sculptures 
brought  to  light  by  General  Cunningham,  near  Pesh- 
awur,  it  is  stated  that  a  complete  set  of  illustmtions 
of  the  New  Testament  might  be  made,  such  as  Mary 
laying  her  child  in  a  manger,  near  which  stands  a 
mare  with  its  foal ;  the  young  Christ  disputing  with 
the  doctors  in  the  Temple ;  the  Saviour  healing  the 
man  with  a  withered  limb ;  the  woman  taken  in 
adultery  kneeling  before  Christ,  whilst  in  the  back- 
ground men  hold  up  stones  menacingly.  Mr.  Fer- 
gusson  fixes  the  date  of  the  Jamalgiri  monastery  as 
somewhere  between  the  fifth  and  seventh  centuries, 

A.D.* 

In  the  cave  of  Elephanta,  over  the  head  of  the 
figure  represented  as  destroying  the  infants,  may  be 
seen  the  mitre,  the  crosier,  and  the  cross.'^ 

1  Monumental  Christianity,  p,  14. 

2  Curious  Myths,  p.  374.     London:  1872. 

3  Maurice,  Indian  Antiquities,  vol.  2,  p.  359. 
*  Buddha  and  early  Buddhism,  p.  x. 

^  Baring-Gould,  Curious  Myths,  p.  374.     London:  1872. 


I2S 


Mr.  Doane,  in  his  Bible  Myths  (p.  i86,  fig.  7), 
gives  a  representation  of  a  pre-Christian  crucifix  of 
Asiatic  origin,  which  is  evidently  intended  to  rep- 
resent the  Hindoo  crucified  Saviour,  Crishna,  the 
"Pardoner  of  Sins"  and  "Liberator from  the  Serpent 
of  Death."  ^  Plate  number  viii.,  same  page,  is  with- 
out doubt  Crishna  crucified.  Instead  of  the  crown 
of  thorns  usually  put  on  the  head  of  the  Christian 
Saviour  it  has  the  turreted  coronet  of  the  Ephesian 
Diana. 

In  the  earlier  copies  of  Moor's  Hindu  Pantheon 
are  to  be  seen  representations  of  Crishna  (as  Wit- 
toba)  with  marks  of  holes  in  both  feet,  and  in  others 
of  holes  in  the  hands.  Figure  vi.  has  a  round  hole 
in  the  side.  To  the  collar  hangs  the  emblem  of  a 
heart. 

The  monk  Georgius,  in  his  Tibetinum  Alphabetum 
(p.  203),  has  given  plates  of  a  crucified  god  wor- 
shipped at  Nepal.  These  crucifixes  were  to  be  seen 
at  the  corners  of  roads  and  on  eminences.  He  calls 
it  the  god  Indra. 

No  sooner  is  Indra  born  than  he  speaks  to  his 
mother.  Like  Apollo  and  all  other  sun-gods,  he  has 
golden  locks,  and,  like  them,  he  is  possessed  of  an  in- 
scrutable wisdom.  He  is  also  born  of  a  virgin,  —  the 
Dawn.     Crishna  and  Indra  are  one.^ 

^  Child,  Progress  of  Religious  Ideas,  vol.  i.  p.  72.  Lon- 
don: 187 1. 

2  Cox,  Aryan  Mythology,  vol.  i.  pp.  88,  304;  vol.  ii.  p.  131. 
London :  1870. 


129 

The  sun-gods  were  generally  said  to  speak  to  their 
mothers  as  soon  as  they  were  born.  This  myth  was 
woven  into  the.  life  of  Buddha,  and  the  Apocryphal 
New  Testament  makes  the  same  statement  in  regard 
to  Christ.^ 

P.  Andrada  la  Crozius,  one  of  the  first  Europeans 
who  went  to  Nepal  and  Thibet,  in  speaking  of  the 
god  whom  they  worshipped  there,  Indra,  tells  us  that 
they  said  he  spilt  his  blood  for  the  salvation  of  the 
human  race,  and  that  he  was  pierced  through  the 
body  with  nails.  He  further  says  that,  although  they 
do  not  say  he  suffered  the  penalty  of  the  cross,  yet 
they  find,  nevertheless,  figures  of  it  in  their  books.^ 

Monsieur  Guigniaut,  in  his  Religion  de  VAntiquite, 
tells  us  that  the  death  of  Crishna  is  very  differently 
related.  One  tradition  makes  him  perish  on  a  tree, 
to  which  he  was  nailed  by  the  stroke  of  an  arrow.^ 

Dr.  Inman  says :  "  Crishna,  whose  history  so 
closely  resembles  our  Lord's,  was  also  like  him  in 
his  being  crucified."  ^ 

On  the  promontory  of  India,  in  the  South  at  Tan- 
jore,  and  in  the  North  at  Oude  or  Ayoudia,  was 
found  the  worship  of  the  crucified  god  Ballaji  or 
Wittoba.  This  god,  who  was  beheved  to  have  been 
an  incarnation  of  Vishnu,  was  represented  with  holes 
in  his  hands  and  side.^ 

1  See  the  Gospel  of  the  Infancy  of  Christ. 

2  Quoted  in  Higgins's  Anacalypsis,  vol.  ii.  p.  Ii8. 
8  Ibid.,  vol.  i.  p.  144. 

*  Ancient  Faiths,  vol.  i.  p.  411.     London  :  1872. 
s  Higgins,  Anacalypsis,  vol.  i.  p.  147. 
9 


130 


The  cross  has  been  an  object  of  profound  venera- 
tion among  the  Buddhists  from  the  earliest  times. 
One  is  the  sacred  swastica.  It  is  seen  on  Buddhist 
zodiacs,  and  is  one  of  the  symbols  in  the  Asoka  in- 
scriptions.^ It  is  the  sectarian  mark  of  the  Jains,  and 
the  distinctive  badge  of  the  sect  of  Xaca  Japonieus. 
The  Vaishnaves  of  India  have  also  the  same  sacred 
sign.^  According  to  Arthur  Lillie,  the  only  Christian 
cross  in  the  Catacombs  is  this  Buddhist  swastica.^ 

The  cross  is  adored  by  the  followers  of  the  Lama 
of  Thibet.  The  Buddhists,  and  indeed  all  of  the 
sects  of  India,  marked  their  followers  on  the  head 
with  the  sign  of  the  cross.  This  ceremony  was  un- 
doubtedly practiced  by  almost  all  heathen  nations. 
The  resemblance  between  the  ancient  religion  of 
Thibet  and  that  of  the  Christians  has  been  noticed 
by  many  European  travellers  and  missionaries,  among 
whom  may  be  mentioned  Pere  Grebillon,  Pere  Grue- 
ber,  Horace  de  la  Paon,  D'Orville,  and  M.  I'Abb^ 
Hue. 

Mr.  Doane  gives  us  a  representation  of  the  Cruci- 
fied Dove  worshipped  by  the  ancients,*  —  the  sun  of 
noonday  crucified  in  the  heavens,  who,  in  the  words 
of  Pindar  (522  B.C.),  "  is  seen  writhing  on  his  winged 
wheel  in  the  highest  heaven."^ 

1  King,  Gnostics,  p.  23. 

2  Buddha  and  Early  Buddhism,  pp.  7,  9,  22. 
2  Ibid.,  p.  227. 

*  Bible  Myths,  p.  485. 

s  The  Extant  Odes  of  Pindar,  translated  by  Ernest  Myers, 
M.A.,  p.  59.     London  :  1874. 


131 

Says  the  author  of  a  learned  work,  entitled  Nimrod: 

We  read  in  Pindar  of  the  venerable  bird  lynx 
bound  to  the  wheel,  and  of  the  pretended  punish- 
ment of  Ixion.  But  this  rotation  was  really  no 
punishment,  being,  as  Pindar  saith,  voluntary,  and 
prepared  by  hhnself,  and  for  himself ;  or  if  it  was, 
it  was  appointed  in  derision  of  his  false  preten- 
sion, whereby  he  gave  himself  out  as  the  crucified 
spirit  of  the  world.  The  four  spokes  represent 
Saint  Andrew's  cross,  adapted  to  the  four  limbs  ex- 
tended, and  furnish  perhaps  the  oldest  profane  al- 
lusion to  the  crucifixion.  The  same  cross  of  Saint 
Andrew  was  the  Taw  which  Ezekiel  commands  them 
to  mark  upon  the  foreheads  of  the  faithful,  as  ap- 
pears from  all  Israelitish  coins  whereon  that  letter  is 
engraved.  The  same  idea  was  familiar  to  Lucian, 
who  calls  T  the  letter  of  crucifixion.  Certainly  the 
veneration  for  the  cross  is  very  ancient.  lynx,  the 
bird  of  Maustic  inspiration,  bound  to  the  four-legged 
wheel,  gives  the  idea  of  Divine  Love  crucified.  The 
wheel  denotes  the  world,  of  which  she  is  the  spirit, 
and  the  cross  the  sacrifice  made  for  that  world. ^ 

The  "  Divine  Love,"  of  whom  Nimrod  speaks,  was 
"  The  First-begotten  Son  "  of  the  Platonists.  Plato 
(429  B.  c),  in  his  Timceus,  in  philosophizing  about 
the  Son  of  God,  says  :  "  The  next  power  to  the  Su- 
preme God  was  decussated  or  figured  in  the  shape  of 
a  cross  on  the  universe." 

1  Nimrod,  vol.  i.  p.  288 ;  Anacalypsis,  vol.  i.  p.  303. 


132 


This  brings  to  mind  the  doctrine  of  certain  Chris- 
tian heretics  (so  called),  who  maintained  that  Jesus 
Christ  was  crucified  in  the  heavens. 

The  crucified  lao  ("  Divine  Love  "  personified)  is 
the  crucified  Adonis,  orTammuz  (the  Jewish  Adonai), 
the  Sun,  who  was  put  to  death  by  the  wild  boar  of 
Aries,  —  one  of  the  twelve  signs  in  the  zodiac.  The 
crucifixion  of  *'  Divine  Love  "  is  often  found  among 
the  Greeks.  Hera  or  Juno,  according  to  the  Iliad, 
was  bound  with  fetters  and  suspended  in  space,  be- 
tween heaven  and  earth.  Ixion,  Prometheus,  and 
Apollo  of  Miletus   were  all  crucified.^ 

The  story  of  the  crucifixion  of  Prometheus  was  al- 
legorical j  for  Prometheus  was  only  a  title  of  the  sun, 
expressing  providence  or  foresight,  wherefore  his  be- 
ing crucified  in  the  extremities  of  the  earth  signified 
originally  no  more  than  the  restriction  of  the  power 
of  the  sun  during  the  winter  months.^ 

A  great  number  of  the  solar  heroes,  or  sun-gods, 
are  forced  to  endure  being  bound,  which  indicates 
the  tied-up  power  of  the  sun  in  winter.^ 

Achilleus  and  Meleagros  represent  alike  the  short- 
lived sun,  whose  course  is  one  of  toil  for  others,  end- 
ing in  an  early  death,  after  a  series  of  wonderful 
victories,  alternating  with  periods  of  darkness  and 

1  See  Smith's  Dictionary  of  Greek  and  Roman  Biography 
and  Mythology,  under  art.  Hera. 

2  Knight,  Ancient  Art  and  Mythology,  p.  88.  New  York : 
1876. 

3  Goloziher,  Hebrew  Mythology,  p.  406.    London :  1877. 


133 


gloom.^  In  the  tales  of  the  Trojan  war  it  is  re- 
lated of  Achilleus  that  he  expires  at  the  Skaian,  or 
western  gates  of  evening.  He  is  slain  by  Paris,  who 
here  appears  as  the  Pani,  or  dark  power,  who  blots 
out  the  sun  from  the  heaven. 

We  have  the  Crucified  Rose,  which  is  illustrated 
in  the  jewel  of  the  Rosicrucians.  This  jewel  is 
formed  of  a  transparent  red  stone,  with  a  red  cross 
on  one  side,  and  a  red  rose  on  the  other ;  thus  it  is  a 
crucified  rose.  "  The  Rossi,  or  Rosi-crucians,  idea 
concerning  this  emblematic  red  cross,"  says  Har- 
grave  Jennings,  in  his  History  of  the  Rosicrucians^ 
"probably  came  from  the  fable  of  Adonis  being 
changed  into  a  red  rose  by  Venus."  ^ 

The  emblem  of  the  Templars  is  a  red  rose  on  a 
cross.  When  it  can  be  done,  it  is  surrounded  with 
a  glory  and  placed  on  a  calvary.  This  is  the  Nau- 
rutz,  Natsir,  or  Rose  of  Isuren,  of  Tamul,  or  Sharon, 
or  the  Water  Rose,  the  Lily  Padma,  Pena,  Lotus, 
crucified  in  the  heavens  for  the  salvation  of  man.^ 

The  principal  silver  coin  among  the  Romans,  called 
the  denarius,  had  on  one  side  a  personification  of 
Rome  as  a  warrior  with  a  helmet,  and  on  the  reverse 
a  chariot  drawn  by  four  horses.  The  driver  had  a 
cross-standard  in  one  hand.  This  is  a  representation 
of  a  denarius  of  the  earliest  kind,  which  was  first 

1  G.  W.  Cox,  Tales  of  Ancient  Greece,  p.  xxxii.  London*. 
1870. 

2  The  Rosicrucians,  p.  260.    London  :  1879. 
8  Ibid. 


134 


coined  296  b.  c.-^  The  cross  was  used  on  the  roll  of 
the  Roman  soldiery  as  the  sign  of  life.  The  labarum 
of  Constantine  was  the  X  and  P  in  combination, 
which  was  the  monogram  of  the  Egyptian  Saviour 
Osiris,  of  Jupiter  Ammon,  and  afterwards  of  Christ.^ 
The  monogram  of  Mercury  was  a  cross. ^  The 
monogram  of  the  Egyptian  Taut  was  formed  by 
three  crosses.*  The  monogram  of  Saturn  was  a 
cross  and  a  ram's  horn  ;  it  was  also  a  monogram  of 
Jupiter.^  The  monogram  of  Venus  was  a  cross  and 
a  circle.®  The  Phoenician  Astarte,  the  Babylonian 
Bal,  Freya,  Holder,  and  Aphrodite,  all  had  the  same 
monogram.' 

An  oval  seal  of  white  chalcedony  engraved  in  the 
Memoires  de  V Academic  royale  des  Inscriptions  et 
Belles  Lettres  (vol.  xvi.),  has  as  subject  a  standing 
figure  between  two  stars,  beneath  which  are  handled 
crosses.  About  the  head  of  the  deity  is  the  triangle, 
or  symbol  of  the  Trinity.  This  seal  is  supposed  to 
be  Phoenician.  The  Phoenicians  also  regarded  the 
cross  as  a  sacred  sign.  The  goddess  Astarte,  —  the 
moon,  —  the  presiding  divinity  over  the  watery  ele- 
ment, is  represented  on  the  coins  of  Byblos  holding 

1  Chambers'  Encyclopaedia,  art.  Denarius. 

2  Celtic  Druids,  p.  127  (London :  1827),  and  Bonwick's 
Egyptian  Belief,  p.  218. 

3  Ibid.  p.  loi.  *  Ibid.  p.  loi. 
^  Ibid.  p.  127.  6  Ibid.  p.  127. 

"^  Bonwick's  Egyptian  Belief,  p.  218 ;  also  Cox,  Aryan  My- 
thology, vol.  ii.  p.  115. 


135 

a  long  staff  surmounted  by  a  cross,  and  resting  her 
foot  on  the  prow  of  a  galley.  The  cyclopean  temple 
at  Gozzo,  the  island  adjacent  to  Malta,  has  been 
supposed  to  be  a  shrine  of  the  Phoenicians  to 
Mylitta  or  Astarte.  It  is  of  cruciform  shape.  A 
superb  medal  of  Cilicia,  bearing  a  Phoenician  legend, 
and  struck  under  the  Persian  domination,  has  on  one 
side  a  figure  of  this  goddess  with  a  crux  ansata  by 
her  side,  the  lower  member  split. 

Another  form  of  the  cross  is  repeated  frequently 
and  prominently  on  coins  of  Asia  Minor.  It  occurs 
as  the  reverse  of  a  silver  coin,  supposed  to  be  of 
Cyprus,  on  several  Cilician  coins;  it  is  placed  be- 
neath the  throne  of  Baal  of  Tarsus,  on  a  Phoenician 
coin  of  that  town,  bearing  the  legend,  translated, 
"  Baal  Tharz."  A  medal  with  partially  obliterated 
characters  has  the  cross  occupying  the  entire  field 
of  the  reverse  side  ;  several,  with  inscriptions  in  un- 
known characters,  have  a  ram  on  one  side,  and  the 
cross  and  ring  on  the  other  ;  another  has  the  sacred 
bull,  accompanied  by  this  symbol ;  others  have  a 
lion's  head  on  obverse,  and  the  cross  and  circle  on 
the  reverse. 

A  beautiful  Cicilian  medal  of  Camarina  bears  a 
swan  and  altar,  and  beneath  the  altar  is  one  of  these 
crosses  with  a  ring  attached  to  it.^ 

As  in  Phoenician  iconography  this  cross  generally 

1  These  medals  are  engraved  to  accompany  the  articles  of 
M.  Raoul-Rochette  on  the  Croix  ansee,  in  the  "  Memoires  de 
I'Academie  des  Inscriptions  et  Belles  Lettres,"  torn.  xvi. 


136 

accompanies  the  deity,  in  the  same  manner  as  the 
handled  cross  is  associated  with  the  Persepolitan, 
Babylonish,  and  Egyptian  gods,  it  is  supposed  that  it 
had  the  same  signification  of  "  Life  Eternal."  It  is 
also  thought  that  it  symbolized  regeneration  through 
water.  On  Babylonish  cylinders  it  is  generally  em- 
ployed in  conjunction  with  the  hawk  or  eagle,  either 
seated  on  it  or  flying  above  it.  This  eagle  is  Nis- 
roch,  whose  eyes  are  always  flowing  with  tears  for 
the  death  of  Tammuz.     In  Greek  iconography  Zeus 

—  the  heaven  —  is  accompanied  by  the  eagle  to 
symbolize  the  cloud.  On  several  Phoenician  or  un- 
certain coins  of  Asia  Minor  the  eagle  and  the  cross 
go  together.  Therefore  it  is  thought  that  the  cross 
may  symbolize  life  restored  by  rain.^ 

An  inscription  in  Thessaly  is  accompanied  by  a 
calvary  cross,  and  Greek  crosses  of  equal  arms  adorn 
the  tomb  of  Midas.  Crosses  of  dififerent  shapes  are 
common  on  ancient  cinerary  urns  in  Italy.  These 
forms  occur  under  a  bed  of  volcanic  tufa  on  the 
Albion  Mount,  and  are  of  remote  antiquity. 

But  long  before  the  Romans,  long  before  the 
Etruscans,  there  lived  in  the  plains  of  Northern  Italy 
a  people  to  whom  the  cross  was  a  religious  symbol, 
the  sign  beneath  which  they  laid  their  dead  to  rest, 

—  a  people  of  whom  history  tells  nothing,  knowing 
not  their  name,  but  of  whom   antiquarian   research 

^  See  Baring-Gould's  Curious  Myths  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
p.  363.     London:  1872. 


137 

has  learned  this,  that  they  lived  in  ignorance  of  the 
arts  of  civilization,  that  they  dwelt  in  villages  built  on 
platforms  over  lakes,  and  that  they  trusted  in  the 
cross  to  guard,  and  may  be  to  revive,  their  loved 
ones  whom  they  committed  to  the  dust.^ 

The  ancient  cemeteries  of  Villanova,  near  Bologna, 
and  Golaseca,  on  the  plateau  of  Somma,  at  the  ex- 
tremity of  Lake  Maggiore,  show  conclusively  that 
above  a  thousand  years  before  Christ  the  cross  was 
already  a  religious  emblem  of  frequent  employment.^ 

The  most  ancient  coins  of  the  Gauls  were  circular, 
with  a  cross  in  the  middle,  like  little  wheels,  as  it 
were,  with  four  large  perforations.  That  these 
rouelles  were  not  designed  to  represent  wheels  is  ap- 
parent from  there  being  only  four  spokes,  placed  at 
right  angles.  Moreover,  when  the  coins  of  the  Greek 
type  took  their  place  the  cross  was  continued  as  the 
ornamentation  of  the  coin.^ 

The  reverse  of  the  coins  of  the  Volcse  Tectosages, 
who  inhabited  the  greater  portion  of  Languedoc,  was 
impressed  with  crosses,  their  angles  filled  with  pel- 
lets, so  like  those  on  the  silver  coins  of  the  Edwards 
that,  were  it  not  for  the  quality  of  the  metal,  one 
would  take  these  Gaulish  coins  to  be  the  production 
of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  Leuci,  who  inhabited  the 
country  round  the  modern  Toul,  had  similar  coins. 

1  Curious  Myths,  p.  364. 

2  De  Mortillet,  Le  Signe  de  la  Croix  avant  le  Christianisme. 
Paris:  1866. 

3  Curious  Myths,  p.  348. 


138 

Near  Paris,  at  Choisy-le-Roy,  was  discovered  a  Gaul- 
ish coin  representing  a  head,  in  barbarous  imitation 
of  that  on  a  Greek  medal,  and  the  reverse  occupied 
by  a  serpent  coiled  round  the  circumference,  enclos- 
ing two  birds.  Between  these  birds  is  a  cross,  with 
pellets  at  the  end  of  each  limb,  and  a  pellet  in  each 
angle.^ 

A  similar  coin  has  been  found  in  numbers  near 
Arthenay,  in  Loiret,  as  well  as  others  of  analogous 
type.  Other  Gaulish  coins  bear  the  cross  on  both 
obverse  and  reverse.  About  two  hundred  pieces  of 
this  description  were  found  in  1835  in  the  village  of 
Cremiat-sur-Yen,  near  Quimper,  in  a  brown  earthen 
urn,  with  ashes  and  charcoal,  in  a  rude  kistvaen  of 
stone  blocks,  —  proving  that  the  cross  was  used  on 
the  coins  in  Armorica  at  the  time  when  incineration 
was  practised.^ 

Just  as  the  Saint  George's  cross  appears  on  the 
Gaulish  coins,  so  does  the  cross  cramponn^e,  or 
Thor's  hammer,  appear  on  the  Scandinavian  moneys. 

In  ploughing  a  field  near  Bornholm,  in  Fyen,  in 
1835,  ^  discovery  was  made  of  several  gold  coins 
and  ornaments  belonging  to  ancient  Danish  civili- 
zation. They  were  impressed  with  a  four-footed 
horned  beast,  girthed  and  mounted  by  a  monstrous 
human  head,  intended  in  barbaric  fashion  to  rep- 
resent the  rider.  In  front  of  the  head  was  the  sign 
of  Thor's  hammer.  Some  of  these  specimens  ex- 
hibited likewise  the  name  of  Thor  in  Runes. 

1  Curious  Myths,  p.  349.  2  ibid.,  p.  350. 


139 


King  Olaf,  Longfellow  tells  us,  when  keeping 
Christmas  at  Drontheim  :  — 

O'er  his  drinking-horn,  the  sign 
He  made  of  the  Cross  Divine, 

As  he  drank  and  muttered  his  prayers ; 
But  the  Berserks  evermore 
Made  the  sign  of  the  Hammer  of  Thor, 
Over  theirs. 

They  both  made  the  same  symbol.  This  we  are 
told  by  Snorro  Sturleson,  in  the  Heimskringla,^ 
when  he  describes  the  sacrifice  at  Lade,  at  which 
King  Hakon,  Athelstan's  foster-son,  was  present. 

Now  when  the  first  full  goblet  was  filled,  Earl 
Sigurd  spoke  some  words  over  it,  and  blessed  it  in 
Odin's  name,  and  drank  to  the  king  out  of  the  horn  ; 
and  the  king  then  took  it  and  made  the  sign  of  the 
cross  over  it.  Then  said  Kaare  of  Greyting,  "  What 
does  the  king  mean  by  doing  so?  will  he  not  sac- 
rifice ?  '^  But  Earl  Sigurd  replied,  "  The  king  is  doing 
what  all  of  you  do  who  trust  in  your  power  and 
strength ;  for  he  is  blessing  the  full  goblet  in  the 
name  of  Thor,  by  making  the  sign  of  his  hammer 
over  it  before  he  drinks  it." 

It  was  with  this  hammer  that  Thor  crushed  the 
head  of  the  great  Mitgard  serpent ;  that  he  destroyed 
the  giants ;  that  he  restored  the  dead  goats  to  life 
which  drew  his  car ;  that  he  consecrated  the  pyre  of 
Baldur.  The  cross  of  Thor  is  still  used  in  Iceland 
1  Heimskringla,  Saga  iv.,  c.  i8  1  a. 


140 


as  a  magical  sign  in  connection  with  storms  of  wind 
and  rain.  The  German  peasantry  use  the  sign  of 
the  cross  to  dispel  a  thunder-storm,  the  cross  being 
used  because  it  resembles  Thor's  hammer,  Thor 
being  the  Thunderer.  For  the  same  reason  bells 
were  often  marked  with  the  "fylfot,'^  or  cross  of 
Thor,  especially  where  the  Norse  settled,  as  in 
Lincolnshire  and  Yorkshire.  Thor's  cross  is  on  the 
bells  of  Appleby,  Scothern,  Waddingham,  Bishop's 
Norton,  and  Barkwith,  also  those  of  Hathersage  in 
Derbyshire,  Mexborough  in  Yorkshire,  and  many 
more. 

The  fylfot  is  the  sacred  swastica  of  the  Buddhists, 
and  the  symbol  of  Buddha.  The  early  Aryan  na- 
tions called  the  cross  arani.  Its  two  arms  were 
named  pramatha  and  swastica.  They  were  merely 
two  pieces  of  wood  with  handles,  and  by  rubbing 
together  they  kindled  the  sacred  fire  agni. 

From  pramatha  comes  the  Grecian  myth  of  Prome- 
theus, who  stole  the  fire  of  heaven  from  Zeus  in  a 
hollow  staff  and  kindled  the  divine  spark  of  life  in 
man  formed  of  clay.  Hence  in  worshipping  the 
cross,  the  Aryans  were  but  worshipping  the  element 
fire.i 

On  the  reverse  of  a  coin  found  at  Ugain  is  a  cross 
of  equal  arms,  with  a  circle  at  the  extremity  of  each, 
and  the  fylfot  in  each  circle. 

The  same  peculiar  figure  occurs  on  coins  of  Syra- 

1  W.  B.  Wilson,  The  Cross  Ancient  and  Modern,  p.  ii. 
New  York :   1888. 


141 

cuse,  Corinth,  and  Chalcedon,  and  is  frequently  em- 
ployed on  Etruscan  cinerary  urns.  It  appears  on 
the  dress  of  a  fossor,  as  a  sort  of  badge  of  his  office, 
on  one  of  the  paintings  in  the  Roman  Catacombs.'^ 
The  cross  was  found  among  the  ruins  of  Pompeii.^ 
In  the  depths  of  the  forests  of  Central  America 
is  a  ruined  city,  Palenque,  founded,  according  to 
tradition,  by  Votan,  in  the  ninth  century  before  the 
Christian  era.  The  principal  building  in  Palenque 
is  the  palace.  The  eastern  fagade  has  fourteen  doors 
opening  on  a  terrace,  with  bas-reliefs  between  them. 
A  noble  tower  rises  above  the  courtyard  in  the 
centre.  In  this  building  are  several  small  temples 
or  chapels,  with  altars  standing.  At  the  back  of  one 
of  these  altars  is  a  slab  of  gypsum,  on  which  are 
sculptured  two  figures  standing  one  on  each  side  of 
a  cross,  to  which  one  is  extending  his  hands  with  an 
offering  of  a  baby  or  a  monkey.  The  cross  is  sur- 
rounded with  rich  feather-work  and  ornamental  chains. 
The  style  of  sculpture  and  the  accompanying 
hieroglyphic  inscriptions  leave  no  room  for  doubting 
it  to  be  a  heathen  representation.  Above  the  cross 
is  a  bird  of  peculiar  character,  perched  like  the  eagle 
of  Nisroch  on  a  cross  upon  a  Babylonish  cylinder. 
The  same  cross  is  represented  on  old  pre-Mexican 
MSS.,  as  in  the  Dresden  Codex,  and  that  in  the  pos- 
session of  Herr  Fejervary,  at  the  end  of  which  is  a 
colossal  cross,  in  the  midst  of  which  is  represented 

1  Curious  Myths,  p.  354. 

2  Pentateuch  Examined,  vol.  vi.  p.  115. 


142 


a  bleeding  deity,  and  figures  standing  round  a  Tau 
cross,  upon  which  is  perched  the  sacred  bird.^ 

A  very  fine  and  highly  polished  cross  which  was 
taken  from  the  Incas  was  placed  in  the  Roman 
Catholic  cathedral  at  Cusco.^ 

The  cross  was  used  in  the  north  of  Mexico.  It 
occurs  amongst  the  Mixtecas  and  in  Queredaro. 
Siguenza  mentions  an  Indian  cross  which  was  found 
in  the  cave  of  Mixteca  Baja.  Among  the  ruins  on 
the  island  of  Zaputero  in  Lake  Nicaragua  were 
also  found  old  crosses  reverenced  by  the  Indians. 
White  marble  crosses  were  found  on  the  island  of 
St.  Ulloa,  on  its  discovery.  In  the  State  of  Ooxaca, 
the  Spaniards  found  that  wooden  crosses  were  erected 
as  sacred  symbols,  so  also  in  Aguatolco,  and  among 
the  Zapatecas.  The  cross  was  venerated  as  far  as 
Florida  on  one  side,  and  Cibola  on  the  other.  In 
South  America  the  same  sign  was  considered  sym- 
bolical and  sacred.  It  was  revered  in  Paraguay. 
Among  the  Muyscas  at  Cumana  the  cross  was  re- 
garded with  devotion  and  was  believed  to  be  en- 
dowed with  power  to  drive  away  evil  spirits ; 
consequently  new-born  children  were  placed  under 
the  sign.3 

The  cross  was  the  central  object  in  the  great 
temple  Cogames. 

1  Klemm,  Kulturgeschichte,  v.  142,  143. 

2  Higgins,  Anacalypsis,  vol.  ii.  p.  32. 

8  See  list  of  authorities  in  Miiller,  Geschichte  der  Ameri- 
kanisben  Urreligionen  (Basil,  1855),  pp.  371,  421,  498,  499. 


143 

Lord  Kingsborough  speaks  of  crosses  being  found 
in  Mexico,  Peru,  and  Yucatan.^  He  also  informs  us 
that  the  banner  of  Montezuma  was  a  cross.  The 
historical  paintings  of  the  Codex  Vaticanus  repre- 
sent him  carrying  a  banner  with  a  cross  on  it.^ 

When  the  Spanish  missionaries  found  that  the 
cross  was  no  new  object  to  the  red  men,  they  were 
in  doubt  whether  to  ascribe  the  fact  to  the  pious 
labors  of  Saint  Thomas,  whom  they  thought  might 
have  found  his  way  to  America,  or  to  the  subtleties 
of  Satan. 

The  Toltecs  asserted  that  their  national  deity  in- 
troduced the  sign  and  ritual  of  the  cross. 

Besides  the  cross,  the  Buddhist  symbols  of  the 
elephant  and  the  cobra  were  f(5und  in  Mexico,  also 
the  figure  of  Buddha.  Mr.  Lillie,  in  his  Buddha  and 
Early  Buddhism^  gives  considerable  evidence  from 
Chinese  records  showing  that  the  missionaries  of 
Buddha  evangelized  America  in  the  fifth  century  a.  d., 
and  persuaded  King  Quetzal  Coatl  to  abolish  the 
sacrifice  of  blood. 

1  Mexican  Antiquities,  vol.  vi.  pp.  165,  180. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  179. 

8  Buddha  and  Early  Buddhism,  ch.xv. 


APPENDICES. 


APPENDIX  A. 

AN   EXPLANATION   OF  THE   FABLE,   IN  WHICH  THE   SUN   IS 
WORSHIPPED  UNDER  THE   NAME   OF   CHRIST. 

It  is  a  fact  that  at  the  hour  of  midnight  on  the  25th  of 
December,  in  the  centuries  when  Christianity  made  its 
appearance,  the  celestial  sign,  which  rose  at  the  horizon, 
and  the  ascendant  of  which  presided  at  the  opening  of  the 
new  solar  revolution,  was  the  Virgin  of  the  constellations. 
It  is  another  fact,  that  the  God  Sun,  born  at  the  winter 
solstice,  is  re-united  with  her  and  surrounds  her  with  his 
lustre  at  the  time  of  our  feast  of  the  Assumption,  or  the 
re-union  of  mother  and  son.  And  still  another  fact  is, 
that,  when  she  comes  out  heliacally  from  the  solar  rays 
at  that  moment,  we  celebrate  her  appearance  in  the 
World,  or  her  Nativity.  It  is  but  natural  to  suppose  that 
those  who  personified  the  Sun,  and  who  made  it  pass 
through  the  various  ages  of  the  human  life,  who  imagined 
for  it  a  series  of  wonderful  adventures,  sung  either  in 
poems  or  narrated  in  legends,  did  not  fail  to  draw  its  horo- 
scopes, the  same  as  horoscopes  were  drawn  for  other  chil- 
dren at  the  precise  moment  of  their  birth.  This  was 
especially  the  custom  of  the  Chaldeans  and  of  the  Magi. 
Afterwards  this  feast  was  celebrated  under  the  name  of 
dies  natalis,  or  feast  of  the  birthday.  Now,  the  celestial 
Virgin,  who  presided  at  the  birth  of  the  god  Day  personi- 
fied, was  presumed  to  be  his  mother,  and  thus  fulfil  the 
prophecy  of  the  astrologer  who  had  said,  "  A  virgin  shall 


148 

conceive  and  bring  forth" ;  in  other  words,  that  she  shall 
give  birth  to  the  God  Sun,  like  the  Virgin  of  Sais.  From 
this  idea  are  derived  the  pictures,  which  are  delineated  in 
the  sphere  of  the  Magi,  of  which  Abulmazar  has  given  us 
a  description,  and  of  which  Kirker,  Seldon,  the  famous 
Pic,  Roger  Bacon,  Albert  the  Great,  Blaen,  Stoffler,  and 
a  great  many  others  have  spoken.  We  are  extracting  here 
the  passage  from  Abulmazar.  "  We  see,"  says  Abulmazar, 
"  in  the  first  decan,  or  in  the  first  ten  degrees  of  the  sign 
of  the  Virgin,  according  to  the  traditions  of  the  ancient 
Persians,  Chaldeans,  Egyptians,  of  Hermes  and  of  ^scu- 
lapius,  a  young  maiden,  called  in  the  Persian  language 
Seclenidos  de  Darzama,  a  name  when  translated  into 
Arabian  by  that  of  Aderenedesa,  signifies  a  chaste,  pure, 
and  immaculate  virgin,  of  a  handsome  figure,  agreeable 
countenance,  long  hair,  and  modest  mien.  She  holds  in 
her  hand  two  ears  of  corn ;  she  sits  on  a  throne ;  she 
nourishes  and  suckles  a  babe,  which  some  call  Jesus,  and 
the  Greeks  call  Christ."  The  Persian  sphere  published 
by  Scaliger  as  a  sequel  of  his  notes  on  Manilius,  gives 
about  the  same  description  of  the  celestial  Virgin ;  but 
there  is  no  mention  made  of  the  child  which  she  suckles. 
It  places  alongside  of  her  a  man,  which  can  only  be  Bootes, 
called  the  foster-father  of  the  son  of  the  Virgin  Isis,  or  of 
Horus. 

The  Sun  is  neither  born  nor  does  it  die;  but,  in  the 
relation  which  the  days  engendered  by  it  have  with  the 
nights,  there  is  in  this  world  a  progressive  gradation  of  in- 
crease and  decrease,  which  has  originated  some  very 
ingenious  fictions  amongst  the  ancient  theologians.  They 
have  assimilated  this  generation,  this  periodical  increase 
and  decrease  of  the  day,  to  that  of  man,  who,  after  having 
been  born,  grown  up,  and  reached  manhood,  degenerates 


149 

and  decreases  until  he  has  finally  arrived  at  the  term  of  the 
career  allotted  to  him  by  Nature  to  travel  over.  The  God 
of  Day,  personified  in  the  sacred  allegories,  had  therefore 
to  submit  to  the  whole  destiny  of  man  :  he  had  his  cradle 
and  his  tomb.  He  was  a  child  at  the  winter  solstice,  at 
the  moment  when  the  days  begin  to  grow.  Under  this 
form  they  exposed  his  image  in  the  ancient  temples,  in 
order  to  receive  the  homage  of  his  worshippers;  "be- 
cause," says  Macrobius,  **  the  day  being  then  the  shortest, 
this  god  seems  to  be  yet  a  feeble  child."  This  is  the  child 
of  the  mysteries,  he  whose  image  was  brought  out  from 
the  recesses  of  their  sanctuaries  by  the  Egyptians  every 
year  on  a  certain  day. 

This  is  the  child  of  which  the  goddess  of  Sais  claimed 
to  be  the  mother,  in  that  famous  inscription,  where  these 
words  could  be  read :  "  The  fruit  which  I  have  brought 
forth  is  the  Sun."  This  is  the  feeble  child,  born  in  the 
midst  of  the  darkest  night,  of  which  this  Virgin  of  Sais 
was  delivered  about  the  winter  solstice,  according  to 
Plutarch. 

In  an  ancient  Christian  work,  called  the  Chronicle  of 
Alexandria,  occurs  the  following:  "Watch  how  Egypt 
has  constructed  the  child  birth  of  a  virgin,  and  the  birth 
of  her  son,  who  was  exposed  in  a  crib  to  the  adoration  of 
her  people."     (See  Bonwick's  Egyptian  Belief,  p.  143.) 

The  Sun  being  the  only  redeemer  of  the  evils  which 
winter  produces,  and  presumed  in  the  sacerdotal  fictions 
to  be  born  at  the  solstice,  must  remain  yet  three  months 
more  in  the  inferior  regions,  in  the  regions  affected  by  evil 
and  darkness,  and  there  be  subject  to  their  ruler  before  it 
makes  the  famous  passage  of  the  vernal  equinox,  which 
assures  its  triumph  over  night,  and  which  renews  the  face 
of  the  earth.     They  must,  therefore,  make  him  live  during 


ISO 

all  that  time  exposed  to  all  the  infirmities  of  mortal  life, 
until  he  has  resumed  the  rights  of  divinity  in  his  triumph. 
(See  Origin  of  All  Religions,  pp.  232,  238.) 

In  the  national  library  there  is  an  Arabian  manuscript 
containing  the  twelve  signs,  delineated  and  colored,  in 
which  is  a  young  child  alongside  of  the  Virgin,  being 
represented  in  about  the  same  style  as  our  Virgins,  and 
like  an  Egyptian  Isis  and  her  son. 

"  In  the  first  decade  of  the  Virgin  rises  a  maid,  called 
in  Arabic  'Aderenedesa'  —  that  is,  pure,  immaculate  virgin, 
—  graceful  in  person,  charming  in  countenance,  modest  in 
habit,  with  loosened  hair,  holding  in  her  hand  two  ears  of 
wheat,  sitting  upon  an  embroidered  throne,  nursing  a  boy, 
and  rightly  feeding  him  in  the  place  called  Hebraea.  A 
boy  I  say,  named  lessus  by  certain  nations,  which  signifies 
Issa,  whom  they  also  call  Christ  in  Greek."  (Kircher, 
CEdipiis  yEgypticus.') 

**  The  celestial  Virgin  was  represented  in  the  Indian 
zodiac  of  Sir  William  Jones  with  ears  of  corn  in  one  hand 
and  the  lotus  in  the  other.  In  Kircher's  zodiac  of  Hermes 
she  has  corn  in  both  hands.  In  other  planispheres  of  the 
Egyptian  priests  she  carries  ears  of  corn  in  one  hand, 
and  the  infant  Horus  in  the  other.  In  Roman  Catholic 
countries  she  is  generally  represented  with  the  child  in  one 
hand  and  the  lotus,  or  lily,  in  the  other.  In  Montfaucon's 
work  (vol.  ii.)  she  is  represented  as  a  female  nursing  a 
child,  with  ears  of  corn  in  her  hand  and  the  legend  Iao. 
She  is  seated  on  clouds.  A  star  is  at  her  head.  The 
reading  of  the  Greek  letters  from  right  to  left  show  this  to 
be  very  ancient."     {Bible  Myths,  pp.  474,  475.) 

Mr.  Cox  tells  us  {Aryan  Myths,  vol.  i.,  p.  228),  that 
with  scarcely  an  exception,  all  the  names  by  which  the 
Virgin  goddess  of  the  Akropolis  was  known,  point  to  the 


151 

mythology  of  the  Dawn.  In  Grecian  mythology  Theseus 
was  said  to  have  been  born  of  Aithra,  "the  pure  air"; 
CEdipus  of  lokaste,  "  the  violet  light  of  morning."  Perseus 
was  born  of  the  Virgin  Danae,  and  was  called  the  "  Son  of 
the  bright  morning."  In  lo,  the  mother  of  the  *'  sacred 
bull,"  the  mother  also  of  Hercules,  we  see  the  "violet- 
tinted  morning."  We  read  in  the  Vishjiu  Purana  that 
"The  Sun  of  Achyuta  (God,  the  Imperishable)  rose  in 
the  dawn  of  Devaki,  to  cause  the  lotus  petal  of  the  uni- 
verse (Crishna)  to  expand.  On  the  day  of  his  birth  the 
quarters  of  the  horizon  were  irradiate  with  joy,"  etc. 

As  the  hour  of  the  Sun's  birth  draws  near,  the  mother 
becomes  more  beautiful,  her  form  more  brilliant,  while  the 
dungeon  is  filled  with  a  heavenly  light,  as  when  Zeus  came 
to  Danae  in  a  golden  shower.  We  read  in  the  Protovan- 
gelion  Apocrypha  (ch.  xiv.)  that  when  Christ  was  born,  on 
a  sudden  there  was  a  great  light  in  the  cave,  so  that  their 
eyes  could  not  bear  it.  Nearly  all  of  the  Sun-gods  are 
represented  as  having  been  born  in  a  cave  or  a  dungeon. 
This  is  the  dark  abode  from  which  the  wandering  Sun 
starts  in  the  morning.  At  his  birth  a  halo  of  serene  light 
encircles  his  cradle  as  the  Sun  appears  at  early  dawn  in  the 
East,  in  all  its  splendor.     In  the  words  of  the  Veda :  — 

Will  the  powers  of  darkness  be  conquered  by  the  god  of 
light  ? 

And  when  the  Sun  rose,  they  wondered  how,  just  born, 
he  was  so  mighty,  and  they  said  :  — 

Let  us  worship  again  the  Child  of  Heaven,  the  Son  of 
Strength,  Arusha,  the  Bright  Light  of  the  Sacrifice.  He 
rises  as  a  mighty  flame,  he  stretches  out  his  wide  arms,  he 


152 

is  even  like  the  wind.  His  light  is  powerful,  and  his 
mother,  the  Dawn,  gives  him  the  best  share,  the  first 
worship  among  men. 

In  the  Rig-Veda  he  is  spoken  of  as  **  stretching  out  his 
arms  "  in  the  heavens  "  to  bless  the  world,  and  to  rescue 
it  from  the  terror  of  darkness." 
1/  All  of  the  Sun-gods  forsake   their  homes  and  Virgin 

mothers,  and  wander  through  different  countries  doing 
marvellous  things.  Finally,  at  the  end  of  their  career,  the 
mother,  from  whom  they  were  parted  long  before,  is  by 
their  side  to  cheer  them  in  their  last  hours.  Also  the 
tender  maidens  are  there,  the  beautiful  lights  which  flush 
the  Eastern  sky  as  the  sun  sinks  in  the  West.  The  Sun 
is  frequently  spoken  of  as  having  been  born  of  the  dusky 
mother,  the  early  dawn  being  dark  or  dusky. 

The  Mexican  Virgin  goddess,  Sochiquetzal  —  the  Hold- 
ing up  of  Roses  —  is  represented  by  Lord  Kingsborough 
as  receiving  a  bunch  of  flowers  from  the  embassador  in 
the  picture  of  the  annunciation.  This  brings  to  mind  a 
curious  tradition  of  the  Mahometans  respecting  the  birth 
of  Christ.  They  say  that  he  was  the  last  of  the  prophets 
who  was  sent  by  God  to  prepare  the  way  for  Mahomet, 
and  that  he  was  born  of  the  Virgin  by  the  smelling  of  a 
rose.     {Antiquities  of  Mexico,  vol.  vi.,  pp.  175,  176.) 


APPENDIX  B. 

THE    LEGENDARY   LIFE  OF  BUDDHA  AND  ITS  RELATION  TO 
THE   INDIAN   ZODL\C. 

That  the  Buddhist  zodiac  plays  a  very  prominent  part  in 
the  legendary  life  of  Buddha  is  very  evident.  Buddha  was 
born  on  Christmas  day,  the  new  birth  of  the  sun.  The 
zodiacal  sign  for  December  is  an  elephant  issuing  from  a 
Makara  or  Leviathan.  Leviathan  is  one  of  the  symbols  of 
the  first  person  of  the  triad.  The  elephant  (Marttanda  of 
the  Rig- Veda)  is  the  symbol  of  his  son,  the  solar  God-man ; 
therefore  Buddha  comes  to  earth  in  the  form  of  an  ele- 
phant. We  are  told  that  in  spring,  when  appears  the  con- 
stellation Visakha  (April-May),  the  Bodhisatwa,  under 
the  appearance  of  a  young  white  elephant  of  six  defences, 
with  a  head  the  color  of  cochineal,  with  tusks  shining  like 
gold,  perfect  in  his  organs  and  limbs,  entered  the  right 
side  of  his  mother  Maha-Maya ;  and  she,  by  means  of  a 
dream,  was  conscious  of  the  fact.  The  night  on  which  the 
Bodhisatwa  entered  his  mother's  side,  on  that  same  night  a 
huge  white  lotus,  springing  from  the  waters  and  parting 
the  earth  for  sixty-eight  millions  of  yoganas  [a  yogana  is 
seven  miles],  rose  up  into  the  middle  of  the  world  of 
Brahma.  This  lotus,  only  the  guide  of  men  [Bodhisatwa] 
and  Brahma  are  able  to  receive.  All  that  there  is  of  life 
and  creative  essence  in  the  three  thousand  great  thou- 
sand worlds  [the  earth]  is  assembled  in  the  dewdrops  of 
this  mighty  lotus. 


Very  early  in  Buddha's  career  the  Rishi  or  Brahmin 
Asiti  (the  constellation  Aquarius,  the  Waterman)  pays  him 
a  visit,  and  immediately  upon  his  presentation,  begins  to 
weep  —  weeps  because  he  is  old  and  stricken  in  years, 
and  consequently  will  not  live  to  see  all  the  marvels  the 
infant  is  to  perform.  Nanda  and  Upananda  (the  constel- 
lation Pisces  —  the  two  crossed  fish  or  serpents  of  Bud- 
dhism, the  sign  Swastica),  the  two  heavenly  serpents,  sym- 
bols of  the  father  and  mother  of  the  universe,  manifest  them- 
selves also  at  an  early  period.  It  is  to  be  observed  that 
Maya,  the  Virgin  of  the  sky,  at  the  moment  of  Buddha's 
birth,  midnight,  December  25,  was  just  rising  above  the 
horizon,  it  being  the  beginning  of  the  new  solar  revolution. 
The  celestial  mother  dies  in  seven  days  in  all  the  Indian 
epics,  and  goes  up  to  heaven,  simply  because  the  sun  had 
entered  Aquarius,  and  Virgo  is  rising  up  in  the  heavens. 
Two  thousand  years  before  Christ  the  sun  passed  the  equi- 
nox under  Taurus,  but  at  the  time  of  Buddha's  birth  it 
passed  it  under  Aries.  Hence  the  solar  horse  with  the 
two  serpents  upon  his  head  (the  Buddhist  Aries)  is 
Buddha's  symbol.  As  Makara  with  Aries  in  his  mouth 
was  the  celestial  sign  in  Palestine  at  the  date  of  Christ's 
birth,  Aries  is  his  symbol  also. 

This  explains  the  attempt  made  to  kill  the  Sun-god  by  a 
wicked  king  (Bimbasara  in  the  Chinese  version).  When 
the  sun  is  in  Aries,  the  Buddhist  shaft  of  death  (Sagit- 
tarius) is  just  rising  above  the  horizon  at  midnight. 

Whilst  in  the  earlier  mansions  of  his  career,  the  seven 
Rishis  (Ursa  Major)  are  near  the  zodiacal  monarch.  Hence 
the  Rishis  at  the  ploughing  festival,  the  dispute  with  the 
Rishis,  etc. 

When  the  Sun-king  approaches  the  pair  (Gemini),  he  has 
to  prepare  for  marriage.     On  the  meridian  at  midnight 


155 

there  is  now  Sagittarius,  and  close  to  him  Capricorn,  the 
zodiacal  elephant.  Hence  the  invariable  archery  match 
and  the  attempt  at  the  young  king's  life  in  the  Indian 
epics,  by  means  of  an  elephant.  In  Gemini  he  is  united 
to  his  heavenly  bride. 

The  palace  in  which  the  anointed  Chakravartin  is  con- 
fined is  really  a  prison,  like  that  of  Vishnu,  as  M.  Stenert 
shows.  I  am  convinced  that  the  celebrated  four  signs  are 
zodiacal,  for  the  shaft  of  death  and  the  Brahmacharin  are 
plainly  descernible.  The  old  man  I  take  to  be  Cancer, 
with  his  emaciated  form  and  prominent  ribs,  for  the  simile 
is  used  when  Buddha's  rib-bones  begin  to  show  during  his 
austerities.  In  that  case,  Scorpio  must  represent  the  sick 
man  or  disease. 

At  the  commencement  of  summer,  the  Prince  breaks 
away  from  his  prison,  the  solar  horse  Kantaka  (the  name 
of  Buddha's  horse)  flies  out  of  the  winter  solstice.  He 
passes  into  Cancer,  and  commences  his  spiritual  initiation 
under  a  tree.  '*  His  body  becomes  terribly  emaciated. 
His  sinews  and  veins  started  out  like  the  knotty  fibres  of 
the  black  sandal-tree.  His  ribs  showed  through  his  side 
like  those  of  a  Crab." 

There  is  no  concealment  of  the  zodiacal  nature  of  the 
narrative  in  this  passage  of  the  Salita  Vistara.  It  is  to  be 
noticed  that  when  the  sun  is  in  the  mansion  of  Cancer, 
Sivastica  (the  fish)  is  rising  above  the  horizon  at  mid- 
night. Hence,  perhaps,  the  convenient  appearance  of 
Swastica,  the  grass-vendor,  and  the  kusa  grass  with  which 
he  supplies  the  Prince. 

Bodhisatwa  marches  to  the  Bodihi-tree  with  the  proud 
step  of  a  Lion.  Here  again  we  have  the  zodiacal  nature 
of  the  narrative  confessed.  Sakya  Sunha  (the  lion  of  the 
Sakyas)  is  gaining  in  spiritual  vigor. 


'^< 


S/>^  OF  THF.        ^ 


156 

The  fancy  of  the  myth-monger  is  tremendously  exercised 
by  the  sign  Virgo.  Sujata,  with  the  rice  and  milk  of  im- 
mortality, is  plainly  Virgo.  Maya,  the  Queen  of  Heaven, 
comes  also  down,  in  an  episode  of  the  Tibetan  version,  to 
comfort  her  son.  The  tree  represents  the  mansion  Virgo 
in  some  Buddhist  zodiacs.  The  baptism  of  the  Prince 
brings  in  tree,  water,  woman,  all  the  intricate  symbolism 
of  the  subject ;  and  that  there  may  be  no  mistake,  all  the 
heavenly  gods  are  brought  in,  in  another  episode,  to 
administer  the  Abhisheka,  or  formal  rite.  The  Bull  is  in 
the  ascendant,  when  the  sun  is  in  Virgo.  Hence,  also, 
the  cows  with  their  celestial  milk.  After  his  baptism,  the 
sun  reaches  the  Mani,  the  triad  symbol ;  so  Buddha  is 
addressed  as,  "  O  Blessed  Trinity  ! "  The  serpent 
Munchalinda  twines  round  him  and  forms  a  canopy  over 
his  head.  The  tree  overshadows  him.  He  shines  like 
the  Sun. 

Scorpio  is  represented  by  womanly  tempters,  by  earthly 
appetite,  the  disease  of  the  soul.  And  as  the  zodiacal 
king  admits  of  no  rival  near  his  throne,  he  vanquishes  and 
converts  Papiyan  (Sagittarius),  also  called  Mara  or  Death. 
Then  the  Chakravartin  turns  the  Chakra  of  Dharma,  the 
spiritual  zodiac.  The  white  elephant  has  his  new  birth  in 
Capricorn,  his  whole  birth  according  to  the  Buddhists, 
and  commences  the  spiritual  life.  He  marches  along  the 
"way"  of  which  Buddhists  make  so  much.  His  path,  in 
fact,  is  the  path  of  heaven.  In  the  old  zodiac  the  bloody 
sacrifice  and  dualism  were  accentuated.  From  above 
2000  B.C.  the  sun  passed  the  equinox  under  Aries,  and  so 
the  solar  horse  in  India,  and  the  ram  or  lamb  in  the  West, 
died  for  the  world  once  a  year.  At  the  autumnal  equinox, 
the  Osiris,  the  Orpheus,  the  White  Horse,  entered  the 
wintry  half-year  imaged  by  the  ancients  as  the  realms  of 


157 

Pluto.  Hence  the  great  Aswamedha  (horse  sacrifice)  of 
the  Aryans.  At  the  spring  equinox  (Easter),  the  sun 
having  been  wept  over  by  virgins,  rose  again.  But  as 
Buddhism  was  a  protest  against  the  animal  sacrifice,  the 
story  of  the  spiritual  awakening  of  an  ascetic  was  substi- 
tuted. All  this  disposes,  I  think,  of  M.  Stenert's  theory 
that  Buddha  never  lived.  A  new  sun-myth  had  to  be 
made  for  Buddha,  and  not  a  Buddha  for  a  sun-myth. 
{Buddha  and  Early  Buddhism,  pp.  110-113.) 


APPENDIX   C. 

BUDDHA   AS   A    REFORMER. 

Five  hundred  and  sixty  years  before  Christ  a  religious 
reformer  appeared  in  Bengal  —  Buddha. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  results  due  to  the  sojourn 
of  this  man  upon  earth  :  — 

1.  "  The  most  formidable  priestly  tyranny  that  the 
world  had  ever  seen  crumbled  away  before  his  attack,  and 
the  followers  were  paramount  in  India  for  a  thousand  years. 

2.  '*  The  institution  of  caste  was  assailed  and  over- 
turned. 

3.  "Polygamy  was  for  the  first  time  pronounced  im- 
moral and  slavery  condemned. 

4.  "Woman,  from  being  considered  a  chattel  and  a 
beast  of  burden,  was,  for  the  first  time,  considered  man's 
equal,  and  allowed  to  develop  her  spiritual  life. 

5.  "All  bloodshed,  whether  with  the  knife  of  the  priest 
or  the  sword  of  the  conqueror,  was  rigidly  forbidden. 

6.  "Also,  for  the  first  time  in  the  religious  history  of 
mankind,  the  awakening  of  the  spiritual  life  of  the  indi- 
vidual was  substituted  for  religion  by  the  body  corporate. 
It  is  ceftain  that  Buddha  was  the  first  to  proclaim  that  duty 
was  to  be  sought  in  the  eternal  principles  of  morality  and 
justice,  and  not  in  animal  sacrifices  and  local  formalities, 
invented  by  the  fancy  of  priests. 

7.  "The  principle  of  religious  propagandism  was  for 
the  first  time  introduced,  with  its  two  great  instruments, 
the  missionary  and  the  preacher."  {Buddha  and  Early 
Buddhism,  pp.  v.,  vi.) 


APPENDIX  D. 

THE  PERSIAN  AC(X)UNT   OF  THE   FALL   OF  MAN. 

According  to  accounts  given  by  Von  Bolen  and  Dr. 
McCaul,  the  universe  was  created  by  Ormuzd  in  six  periods 
of  time,  in  the  following  order :  First,  the  heavens ;  sec- 
ond, the  waters;  third,  the  earth;  fourth,  the  trees  and 
plants  ;  fifth,  the  animals  ;  sixth,  man.  After  Ormuzd  had 
finished  his  work  he  rested. 

After  the  creation  of  the  world  the  evil  being  (Ahriman) 
got  upon  the  earth  in  the  form  of  a  serpent  and  seduced 
the  first  human  pair  from  their  allegiance  to  God.  (See 
Aids  to  Faith,  p.  219;  also.  The  Pentateuch  Examined, 
vol.  iv.  p.  113.) 

Bishop  Colenso  tells  us  of  the  Persian  legend,  that  the 
first  couple  lived  originally  in  purity  and  innocence.  Per- 
petual happiness  was  promised  them  by  the  Creator  if 
they  continued  in  their  virtue.  But  an  evil  demon  came 
in  the  form  of  a  serpent,  sent  by  Ahriman,  the  prince  of 
devils,  and  gave  them  fruit  of  a  wonderful  tree,  which  im- 
parted immortality.  Evil  inclinations  then  entered  their 
hearts,  and  all  their  moral  excellence  was  destroyed. 
Consequently  they  fell,  and  forfeited  the  eternal  happiness 
for  which  they  were  destined.  They  killed  beasts  and 
clothed  themselves  in  their  skins.  The  evil  demon  ob- 
tained still  more  perfect  power  pver  their  minds,  and 
called  forth  envy,  hatred,  discord,  and  rebellion,  which 
raged  in  the  bosom  of  the  families.  {The  Pentateuch 
Examined,  vol.  i v.  p.  115.) 


i6o 


Ormuzd,  the  God  of  Light  and  of  the  good  principle, 
informs  Zoroaster  that  he  had  given  to  man  a  place  of 
delight  and  abundance.  "  If  I  had  not  given  him  this 
place  of  delight,  no  other  being  would  have  done  so.  Xhh 
place  was  called  Eiren,  which  at  the  beginning  was  more 
beautiful  than  all  the  world,  which  my  power  had  called 
into  existence.  Nothing  could  equal  the  beauty  of  this 
delightful  place  which  I  had  granted.  I  was  the  first  who 
acted,  and  afterwards  Petiare  [which  is  Ahriman,  or  the 
bad  principle]  :  this  Petiare  Ahriman,  full  of  death  and 
corruption,  made  in  the  river,  the  great  'Adder,'  the 
mother  of  winter,  which  congealed  the  water,  the  earth, 
and  the  trees." 

It  is  evident  that  the  question  here  is  only  of  the  phys- 
ical and  periodical  evil  which  the  earth  experiences 
annually  by  the  retreat  of  the  Sun,  which  is  the  source  of 
life  and  of  light  for  all  that  live  on  the  face  of  the  globe. 
The  cosmogony  contains,  therefore,  only  an  allegorical 
picture  of  the  phenomena  of  Nature,  and  of  the  influence 
of  the  celestial  signs ;  because  the  serpent  or  the  great 
Adder,  which  ushers  winter  into  the  World,  is,  like  the 
Balance,  one  of  the  constellations  placed  on  the  boun- 
daries which  separate  the  dominion  of  the  two  principles, 
or,  in  other  words,  in  the  present  instance,  on  the  equinox 
of  autumn. 

This  is  the  celestial  Serpent  or  the  Star  Serpent.  It  is 
in  the  heavens  that  Ahriman  is  made  to  creep  along  under 
the  form  of  a  serpent.  The  Boundesh,  or  the  Genesis  of 
the  Persians,  holds  the  following  language:  "Ahriman, 
the  principle  of  Evil  and  of  Darkness,  he  from  whom  all 
the  evil  in  this  world  is  proceeding,  penetrated  into  Heaven 
under  the  form  of  a  serpent,  accompanied  by  Dews,  or  bad 
Genii,  whose  only  business  is  to  destroy."   And  in  another 


i6i 


place  we  read :  "  And  when  the  bad  Genii  desolated  the 
world,  and  when  the  Star  Serpent  made  itself  a  road  be- 
tween Heaven  and  Earth,  or,  in  other  words,  when  it  rose 
on  the  horizon,"  etc. 

Now  at  what  epoch  of  the  annual  revolution  rises  the 
celestial  Serpent,  united  to  the  Sun,  on  the  horizon  with 
that  luminary  ?  When  the  Sun  has  arrived  at  the  con- 
stellation of  the  Balance,  over  which  the  constellation  of 
the  Serpent  is  extended,  in  other  words,  at  the  seventh 
sign,  counting  from  the  Lamb,  or  at  the  sign  under  which, 
as  we  have  seen  above,  the  Magi  had  fixed  the  commence- 
ment of  the  reign  of  the  evil  principle,  and  the  introduc- 
tion of  Evil  into  the  Universe. 

"  The  cosmogony  of  the  Jews,"  says  Mr.  Dupuis,  "in- 
troduces the  Serpent  with  a  man  and  a  woman.  In  it  the 
Serpent  is  made  to  speak ;  but  one  feels  that  this  is  pe- 
culiar to  the  Oriental  genius,  and  belongs  to  the  character 
of  the  allegory.  The  foundation  of  the  theology  is  abso- 
lutely the  same.  It  is  quite  true  there  is  no  mention  made 
by  the  Jews  about  the  Serpent  having  introduced  winter, 
which  destroyed  all  the  blessings  of  Nature ;  but  it  is  said 
there  that  man  felt  the  necessity  of  covering  himself,  and 
that  he  was  compelled  to  till  the  ground,  an  operation 
which  is  performed  in  and  which  corresponds  to  autumn. 
It  is  not  said  that  it  was  at  the  seventh  thousand  or  under 
the  seventh  sign  when  the  change  happened  in  the  situa- 
tion of  man  ;  but  the  action  of  the  good  principle  is  there 
divided  into  six  times,  and  it  is  on  the  seventh  that  its  rest 
or  the  cessation  of  its  energy  is  placed,  as  well  as  the  fall 
of  man  in  the  season  of  fruits,  and  the  introduction  of  the 
Evil  by  the  Serpent,  the  form  of  which  was  taken  by  the 
bad  principle,  or  the  Devil,  in  order  to  tempt  the  first 
mortals.    They  fix  the  locality  of  the  scene  in  the  same 


l62 

countries  which  are  comprised  under  the  name  of  Eiren, 
or  Iran,  and  towards  the  sources  of  the  great  rtvers  Eu- 
phrates, Tigris,  Phison,  or  of  the  Araxes :  only  instead  of 
Eiren  the  Hebrew  copyists  have  put  Eden,  as  the  two 
letters  r  and  d  in  that  language  have  a  remarkable  resem- 
blance." 

This  cosmogonical  idea  has  been  expressed  by  the  Magi 
in  another  form.  They  suppose  that  from  time  without 
end  or  from  eternity,  a  limited  period  has  been  created, 
which  incessantly  renews  itself.  They  divide  this  period 
into  twelve  thousand  small  parts,  which  they  call  years  in 
allegorical  style.  Six  thousand  of  these  fractions  belong 
to  the  principle  of  Good,  and  the  other  six  to  that  of  Evil ; 
and  that  there  may  be  no  mistake,  they  make  each  one  of 
these  millesimal  divisions,  or  each  one  thousand,  corre- 
spond to  one  of  the  signs  through  which  the  Sun  makes 
the  transit  during  each  one  of  the  twelve  months.  The 
first  one  thousand,  they  say,  corresponds  to  the  Lamb, 
the  second  to  the  Bull,  the  third  to  the  Twins,  etc. 
Under  these  first  six  signs,  or  under  the  signs  of  the  first 
six  months  of  the  equinoctial  year,  they  place  the  reign 
and  the  beneficent  action  of  the  principle  of  Light,  and 
under  the  other  six  signs  they  place  the  action  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  Evil.  It  is  at  the  seventh  sign,  corresponding  to 
the  Balance,  or  at  the  first  of  the  signs  of  autumn,  of  the 
season  of  fruits  and  of  winter,  that  they  place  the  com- 
mencement of  the  reign  of  Darkness  and  of  Evil.  This 
reign  lasts  till  the  return  of  the  Sun  to  the  sign  of  the  Lamb, 
which  corresponds  to  the  month  of  March  and  to  Easter. 
This  is  the  foundation  of  their  theological  system  about  the 
distribution  of  the  opposing  forces  of  the  two  principles, 
to  the  action  of  which  man  is  subject,  during  each  solar 
revolution ;  this  is  the  tree  of  Good  and  Evil  near  which 


i63 

Nature  Ms  placed  him.  Let  us  hear  their  own  state- 
ments. 

"  Time,"  says  the  author  of  the  Boundesh,  "  is  composed 
of  twelve  thousand  years  :  the  thousands  belonging  to  God 
include  the  Lamb,  the  Bull,  the  Twins,  the  Cancer,  the 
Lion,  and  the  Ear  of  Corn,  or  the  Virgin,  which  makes  six 
thousand  years.  If  we  substitute  for  the  word  'year' 
that  of  the  fractions  or  the  small  periods  of  time,  and  for 
the  name  of  the  signs,  those  of  the  months,  we  shall  have 
March,  April,  May,  June,  July,  and  August ;  in  other  words, 
the  beautiful  months  of  periodical  vegetation.  After  these 
thousands  of  God  comes  the  Balance.  Then  began  the 
career  of  Ahriman  in  the  world.  After  that  comes  the 
Bowman,  or  the  Sagittarius,  and  Afrasiab  committed  the 
Evil,"  etc. 

If  we  substitute  for  the  names  of  the  signs  of  the  Bal- 
ance, the  Scorpion,  the  Sagittarius,  the  Capricorn,  the 
Waterman  and  the  Fishes,  the  names  of  the  months,  Sep- 
tember, October,  November,  December,  January,  and  Feb- 
ruary, we  shall  have  the  six  times  affected  by  the  principle 
of  Evil  and  its  effects,  which  are  the  hoary  frosts,  the  snow, 
the  winds,  and  the  excessive  rains.  It  will  be  observed 
that  the  evil  Genius  begins  to  exercise  his  fatal  influence 
in  September,  or  in  the  season  of  fruits  and  of  apples,  by 
the  introduction  of  cold  weather,  by  the  destruction  of 
plants,  etc.  It  is  then  that  man  becomes  aware  of  the 
evils  which  he  ignored  in  spring  and  summer  in  the 
beautiful  cUmate  of  the  northern  hemisphere. 

"According  to  the  formal  expressions  used  in  the 
cosmogony,  it  follows  that  the  evil  introduced  into  the 
World  is  the  winter.  Who  shall  be  its  redeemer?  The 
God  of  spring  or  the  Sun  in  its  passage  under  the  sign  of 
the  Lamb. " 


164 

It  is  then,  when  fecunded  by  the  immortal  and  spiritual 
(intelligent)  action  of  the  fire  Ether,  and  by  the  heat  of 
the  Sun  of  the  equinoctial  Lamb,  that  Earth  becomes  a 
delightful  abode  for  man. 

But  when  the  Star  of  day,  reaching  the  Balance  and  the 
Celestial  Serpent,  or  the  signs  of  autumn,  passes  into  the 
other  hemisphere,  then  it  consigns  our  regions,  by  its 
retreat,  to  the  hardships  of  winter,  to  the  impetuous  winds, 
and  to  all  the  devastations  which  the  destructive  Genius 
of  Darkness  commits  in  the  world.  There  is  no  more 
hope  for  man,  except  the  return  of  the  Sun  to  the  sign  of 
Spring  or  to  the  Lamb,  being  the  first  of  the  signs.  This 
is  the  Redeemer  which  he  expects. 

The  Hebrew  doctors  themselves,  as  well  as  the  Chris- 
tian doctors,  agree  that  the  books  which  we  attributed  to 
Moses  were  written  in  the  allegorical  style,  that  they  fre- 
quently represent  quite  a  different  meaning  than  the  literal 
sense  would  indicate,  and  that  it  would  lead  to  false  and 
absurd  notions  of  the  Deity  if  we  should  hold  on  to  the 
rind  which  covers  sacred  science.  It  is  principally  the 
first  and  second  chapters  of  Genesis  that  they  have 
acknowledged  to  contain  a  hidden  and  allegorical  sense, 
of  which  they  say  we  must  carefully  abstain  from  giving 
the  interpretation  to  the  vulgar.  Maimonides,  the  wisest 
of  the  Rabbles,  says :  — 

We  must  not  understand  or  take  in  a  literal  sense 
what  is  written  in  the  book  on  the  creation,  nor  form  of 
it  the  same  ideas  which  are  participated  by  the  generality 
of  mankind ;  otherwise  our  ancient  sages  would  not  have 
so  much  recommended  to  us  to  hide  the  real  meaning  of 
it,  and  not  to  lift  the  allegorical  veil  which  covers  the  truth 
contained  therein.    When  taken  in  its  literal  sense,  that 


i65 

work  gives  the  most  absurd  and  most  extravagant  ideas 
of  the  Deity.  Whosoever  should  divine  its  true  meaning 
ought  to  take  great  care  in  not  divulging  it.  This  is  a 
maxim  repeated  to  us  by  all  our  sages,  principally  concern- 
ing the  understanding  of  the  work  of  the  six  days.  It 
is  possible  that  somebody,  either  through  himself  or  by 
means  of  the  light  obtained  from  others,  may  succeed  to 
divine  its  meaning ;  then  let  him  be  silent,  or  if  he  speaks 
of  it,  let  it  be  done  only  in  as  veiled  a  manner  as  I  do, 
leaving  the  remainder  to  be  guessed  by  those  who  can 
hear  me. 

Maimonides  adds  that  the  enigmatical  talent  was  not 
peculiar  to  Moses  or  to  the  Jewish  doctors,  but  that  they 
held  it  in  common  with  all  the  wise  men  of  antiquity. 
Philo,  a  Jewish  writer,  held  the  same  opinion  of  the 
character  of  the  sacred  books  of  the  Hebrews  (see  his 
treatise  on  the  Allegories).  "  It  is  acknowledged  by  all," 
says  Origenes,  * '  that  everything  there  is  wrapped  up  under 
the  veil  of  enigma  and  parable."  Augustine,  in  his  City 
of  God,  acknowledges  that  many  people  saw  in  the  inci- 
dent of  Eve  and  the  Serpent,  as  well  as  in  the  terres- 
trial Paradise,  only  an  allegorical  fiction.  (See  Origin 
of  All  Religious  Belief,  pp.  219,  226,  231.) 


APPENDIX   E. 

THE   LEGEND    OF  THE   TRAVELS    OF   ISIS,    OR  THE    MOON. 

The  ancient  Egyptians  associated  the  Moon  in  the  uni- 
versal administration  of  the  World  with  the  Sun,  and  it  is 
the  former  which  plays  the  part  of  Isis  in  the  sacred  fable 
known  as  the  history  of  Osiris  and  Isis.  We  are  informed 
by  Diodorus,  of  Sicily,  that  the  first  inhabitants  of  Egypt, 
while  admiring  the  spectacle  of  the  heavens  and  the  won- 
derful order  of  the  world,  thought  to  perceive  in  heaven 
two  principal  and  eternal  causes,  or  two  grand  divinities ; 
and  one  of  them  they  called  Osiris,  or  the  Sun,  and  the 
other  Isis,  or  the  Moon.  This  is  confirmed  by  Porphyrins, 
Chaeremon,  and  by  other  authors.  The  legend  of  Osiris 
and  Isis  has  come  down  to  us  in  a  mutilated  form,  and  the 
following  is  what  Plutarch  supposes  it  to  have  been :  — 

After  his  return  from  his  travels  in  Egypt,  Osiris  was 
invited  by  Typhon,  his  brother  and  rival,  to  a  banquet. 
He  was  put  to  death  by  the  latter,  and  his  body  thrown 
into  the  Nile.  "  The  Sun,"  says  Plutarch,  "  occupied  then 
the  sign  of  the  Scorpion,  and  the  Moon  was  full ;  the 
latter  wa«  therefore  in  the  sign  opposite  to  the  Scorpion ; 
in  other  words,  in  the  Bull,  which  lent  its  form  to  the 
equinoctial  vernal  Sun,  or  to  Osiris,  because  at  that  re- 
mote period  the  Bull  was  the  sign  which  corresponded  to 
the  equinox  of  spring."  As  soon  as  Isis  was  informed  of 
the  death  of  Osiris,  she  went  in  search  of  his  body.  She 
is  informed  by  children  that  the  coffin  containing  the  body 


16/ 

of  her  husband  had  been  carried  by  the  flood  down  to  the 
sea,  and  thence  to  Byblos,  where  it  stopped  ;  that  it  rested 
quietly  on  a  plant,  which  all  at  once  had  budded  and  put 
forth  a  splendid  stem.  The  coffin  was  so  completely  en- 
veloped by  it,  that  it  seemed  to  form  only  one  and  the 
same  body.  The  king  of  the  country,  astonished  at  the 
beauty  of  the  tree,  had  cut  it  down  and  made  out  of  it  a 
column  for  his  palace  without  perceiving  the  coffin.  Isis, 
informed  by  Fame  and  impelled  as  it  were  by  divine 
instinct,  arrives  at  Byblos.  Bathed  in  tears,  she  sits  down 
near  a  fountain,  where  she  remains  until  the  women  of  the 
queen  arrive.  She  salutes  them  respectfully,  and  dresses 
their  hair,  so  as  to  emit  with  their  bodies  the  fragrance  of 
an  exquisite  perfume.  The  queen,  having  been  informed 
of  this,  and  smelling  the  delightful  fragrance  of  Ambrosia, 
desired  to  see  the  stranger.  She  invites  Isis  to  come  to 
the  palace  and  be  the  nurse  of  her  son.  During  the  night 
Isis  burns  all  the  mortal  parts  of  the  child's  body.  At  the 
same  time  she  metamorphoses  herself  into  a  swallow ;  she 
flutters  around  the  column,  and  fills  the  air  with  her  plain- 
tive cries,  until  the  queen,  who  had  observed  her,  shrieks 
with  horror  at  the  sight  of  her  son  in  flames.  This  scream 
breaks  the  charm  which  would  have  given  immortality  to 
the  infant.  The  goddess  then  made  herself  known,  and 
requested  that  the  precious  column  should  be  given  up  to 
her.  She  took  easily  from  it  the  body  of  her  husband,  by 
disengaging  the  coffin  from  the  wood  which  covered  it.  She 
veiled  it  with  a  light  tissue,  which  she  perfumed  with 
essences ;  afterwards  she  restored  to  the  king  and  to  the 
queen  this  envelope  of  foreign  wood,  which  was  deposited 
in  the  temple  of  Isis  at  Byblos.  The  goddess  then  ap- 
proached the  coffin,  bathing  it  with  tears,  and  uttered  such 
a  terrific  scream  that  the  youngest  son  of  the  king  died  of 


i68 


terror.  Isis  took  the  oldest  one  with  her,  and  embarked 
on  board  of  a  vessel,  taking  with  her  the  precious  coffin ; 
but  towards  morning,  a  somewhat  strong  wind  having  risen 
on  the  river  Phasdrus,  it  made  her  stop  suddenly.  Isis 
retires  aside,  and  supposing  herself  alone,  she  opens  the 
coffin,  and  pressing  her  lips  on  those  of  her  husband,  she 
kisses  and  bedews  him  with  her  tears.  The  young  prince, 
whom  she  had  brought  along  with  her,  approached  her 
stealthily  from  behind  with  as  little  noise  as  possible,  and 
spied  her  movements.  The  goddess  perceived  it,  and 
turning  around  suddenly,  she  gives  him  such  a  terrible 
look  that  he  dies  of  terror.  She  embarks  again,  and 
returns  to  Egypt,  near  her  son  Orus  (Horus),  who  was 
brought  up  at  Butos,  and  she  deposits  the  corpse  in  a  re- 
tired place.  Typhon,  having  gone  hunting  at  night,  dis- 
covers the  coffin,  and  having  recognized  the  corpse,  he 
cuts  it  into  fourteen  pieces,  which  he  throws  around  in  all 
directions.  The  goddess  having  seen  it,  goes  to  collect 
these  scattered  pieces.  She  buries  each  one  in  the  place 
where  she  had  found  it.  However,  of  all  the  parts  of  the 
body  of  Osiris,  the  only  one  which  she  could  not  find  was 
that  of  generation.  In  place  of  it  she  substitutes  the 
phallus,  which  was  its  image,  and  which  was  consecrated 
to  the  mysteries. 

Some  time  afterwards,  Osiris  returned  from  the  infernal 
regions  to  the  rescue  of  his  son  Orus,  and  placed  him  in  a 
condition  to  defend  him.  He  mounted  him,  some  say  on 
a  horse,  others  on  a  wolf.  Typhon  was  vanquished  ;  Isis 
let  him  escape.  Orus  felt  indignant  on  that  account  and 
took  from  his  mother  her  diadem ;  but  Mercurius  gave 
her  in  its  place  a  helmet  in  the  shape  of  a  bull's  head. 

Dupuis  gives  comparative  pictures  of  the  legend  and  the 
state  of  the  heavens   from  the  time  when  the  sun  has 


169 

quitted  our  hemisphere,  and  left  to  the  Moon,  then  full,  the 
reign  of  the  long  nights,  until  the  time  when  it  repasses 
to  our  climes.  (See  Origin  of  All  Religious  Beliefs  pp. 
99-107.) 


APPENDIX  F. 

AN  EXPLANATION  OF  THE  HERACLEID,  OR  OF  THE  SACRED 
POEM  ON  THE  TWELVE  MONTHS  AND  ON  THE  SUN, 
WORSHIPPED   UNDER   THE   NAME   OF   HERCULES. 

The  following  comparison  of  the  legend  of  Hercules 
with  the  constellations  which  preside  over  the  twelve 
months  is  from  Dupuis.    (See  Origin  of  All  Religions,  pp. 

87-93-) 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  opinions  about  Hercules, 
he  was  surely  not  a  petty  Grecian  prince,  renowned  for  his 
romantic  adventures.  It  is  the  mighty  luminary,  which 
animates  and  fructifies  the  universe,  the  divinity  which 
has  been  honored  everywhere  by  the  erection  of  temples 
and  altars,  and  consecrated  in  religious  song  by  all  nations. 
From  Meroe  in  Ethiopia,  and  Thebes  in  Upper  Egypt,  to 
the  British  Isles  and  to  the  snows  of  Scythia ;  from  ancient 
Taprobane  and  Palibothra  in  the  Indies  to  Cadiz  and  the 
shores  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean ;  from  the  forests  of  Germany 
to  the  burning  sands  of  Lybia, — wherever  the  blessings  of 
the  Sun  were  experienced,  there  the  worship  of  Hercules 
is  found  established,  there  are  sung  the  glorious  deeds  of 
this  invincible  God.  Many  centuries  before  the  epoch 
which  is  assigned  to  the  son  of  Alcmena  or  to  the  sup- 
posed hero  of  Tirynthia,  as  the  time  when  they  made  him 
live,  Egypt,  Phcenicia,  —  which  surely  did  not  borrow  their 
gods  from  Greece,  —  had  erected  temples  to  the  Sun  under 
the  name  of  Hercules,  and  had  carried  his  worship  to  the 


171 

island  of  Thasos  and  to  Cadiz,  where  they  had  consecrated 
a  temple  to  the  Year  and  to  the  Month,  which  divided  it 
into  twelve  parts ;  or,  in  other  words,  to  the  twelve  labors 
or  twelve  victories  which  conducted  Hercules  to  immor- 
tality. 

It  is  under  the  name  of  Hercules  Astrochyton,  or  of  the 
God  clad  in  a  mantle  of  Stars,  that  the  poet  Nonnus  desig- 
nates the  Sun-god  worshipped  by  the  Tyrians.  The  titles 
of  the  King  of  Fire,  or  Lord  of  the  World  and  of  the 
Planets,  of  nourisher  of  mankind,  of  the  God  whose 
glowing  orb  revolves  eternally  around  the  Earth,  and  who 
while  followed  in  his  track  by  the  Year,  the  daughter  of 
Time  and  mother  of  the  Twelve  Months,  draws  along  in 
regular  succession  the  seasons,  which  renew  and  reproduce 
themselves,  are  so  many  traits  of  the  Sun,  that  we  should 
recognize  them  even  if  the  poet  had  not  given  to  his  Her- 
cules the  name  of  HeHos,  or  the  Sun. 

The  author  of  the  hymns  which  are  attributed  to  Or- 
pheus describes  in  the  most  precise  manner  the  affinity, 
or  rather  the  identity,  of  Hercules  with  the  Sun.  The 
Phoenicians  have  consequently  preserved  the  tradition  that 
Hercules  was  the  Sun-god,  and  that  his  twelve  labors 
represented  the  journey  of  this  luminary  through  the 
twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac.  Porphyrins,  born  in  Phoenicia, 
makes  the  same  assertion. 

"The  Egyptians,"  says  Plutarch,  "  thought  that  Hercules 
had  his  seat  in  the  Sun,  and  that  he  travelled  with  it 
around  the  world."  The  scholiast  of  Hesiod  tells  us  also 
"that  the  zodiac,  in  which  the  Sun  accomplishes  its  an- 
nual course,  is  the  real  career  which  Hercules  travels  over 
in  the  fable  of  the  twelve  labors,  and  that  by  his  marriage 
with  Hebe,  the  goddess  of  youth,  we  must  understand 
the  year  which  renews  itself  at  the  end  of  each  revolution." 


172 

It  is  evident  that  if  Hercules  is  the  Sun,  as  is  shown  by 
the  above-cited  authorities,  the  fable  of  the  twelve  labors 
is  a  solar  fable  which  can  have  reference  only  to  the  twelve 
months  and  to  the  twelve  signs,  of  which  the  Sun  travels 
over  one  in  each  month.  This  inference  shall  become  a 
demonstration  by  the  comparison  which  we  shall  make  of 
each  of  the  labors  with  each  one  of  the  months,  or  with 
the  signs  and  constellations  which  mark  the  division  of 
time  in  the  heavens  during  each  of  the  months. 

Amongst  the  different  epochs  at  which  formerly  the  year 
began,  that  of  the  summer  solstice  was  one  of  the  most 
remarkable.  It  was  on  the  return  of  the  Sun  to  this  point 
that  the  Greeks  fixed  the  celebration  of  their  Olympic 
feasts,  the  establishment  of  which  was  attributed  to  Her- 
cules ;  this  was  the  origin  of  the  most  ancient  era  of  the 
Greeks.  We  shall  therefore  fix  the  departure  of  the  Sun 
Hercules  there,  in  its  annual  route.  The  sign  of  the 
Lion,  domicil  of  that  star  which  furnishes  it  with  its  attri- 
butes, having  formerly  occupied  that  point,  —  his  first 
labor  shall  be  his  victory  over  the  Lion ;  and  it  is  indeed 
the  one  which  has  been  placed  at  the  head  of  all  the  others. 

But  before  we  shall  compare  month  for  month,  the 
series  of  the  twelve  labors  with  that  of  the  stars,  which 
determine  and  mark  the  annual  route  of  the  Sun,  it  is  well 
to  observe  that  the  ancients,  in  order  to  regulate  their 
sacred  and  rural  calendars,  employed  not  only  the  signs  of 
the  zodiac,  but  more  frequently  also  remarkable  stars, 
placed  outside  of  the  zodiac,  and  the  various  constella- 
tions, which,  by  their  rising  and  setting,  indicate  the  place 
of  the  Sun  in  each  sign.  The  proof  of  this  will  be  found 
in  the  Pastes  of  Ovid,  in  Columella,  and  chiefly  in  the 
ancient  calendars  which  we  have  published  as  a  sequel  to 
our  larger  work. 


173 


CALENDAR. 


FIRST   MONTH. 


Passage  of  the  Sun  under  the 
sign  of  the  celestial  Lion,  called 
the  Lion  of  Nemea,  fixed  by  the 
setting  in  the  morning  of  the 
Ingenicuhis,  or  the  constella- 
tion of  the  celestial  Hercules. 

SECOND   MONTH. 

The  Sun  enters  the  sign  of 
the  Virgin,  marked  by  the  total 
setting  of  the  celestial  Hydra, 
called  the  Lernean  Hydra,  the 
head  of  which  rises  again  in 
the  morning  with  the  Cancer. 

THIRD   MONTH. 

Passage  of  the  Sun  at  the 
commencement  of  Autumn  to 
the  sign  of  the  Balance,  fixed 
by  the  rising  of  the  celestial 
Centaur,  the  same  whose  hos- 
pitality Hercules  enjoyed.  This 
constellation  is  represented  in 
the  Heavens  with  a  leather  bot- 
tle, filled  with  wine,  and  a 
thyrsus  adorned  with  vine 
leaves  and  grapes,  image  of 
the  season's  product.  Then 
rises  in  the  evening  the  celes- 
tial Bear,  called  by  others  the 
Boar  and  the  animal  of  Ery- 
manthia. 


POEM. 

TITLE  OF  THE  FIRST  CANTO  OR 
OF  THE   FIRST   LABOR. 

Victory  of  Hercules  over  the 
Nemean  Lion. 


SECOND   LABOR. 

Hercules  stays  the  Lernean 

Hydra,  the  heads  of  which  grew 

again,  whilst  he  is  cramped  in 

his  labor  by  a  crawfish  or  Can- 


THIRD  LABOR. 
A  Centaur  gives  hospitaUty 
to  Hercules;  his  fight  with  the 
Centaurs  for  a  cask  of  wine; 
victory  of  Hercules  over  them; 
he  slays  a  terrible  wild  Boar 
which  devastated  the  fields  of 
Erymanthia. 


174 


FOURTH  MONTH. 

The  Sun  enters  the  sign  of 
the  Scorpion,  fixed  by  the  set- 
ting of  Cassiope,  a  constellation 
which  was  formerly  represented 
by  a  Hind. 


FIFTH  MONTH. 

The  Sun  enters  the  sign  of 
the  Sagittarius,  consecrated  to 
the  goddess  Diana,  whose  tem- 
ple was  at  Sty mph alia,  in  which 
the  Stymphalian  birds  were  to 
be  seen.  This  passage  is  fixed 
by  the  rising  of  three  birds,  — 
the  Vulture,  the  Swan,  and  the 
Eagle,  —  pierced  by  the  arrow 
of  Hercules. 


SIXTH  MONTH. 

Passage  of  the  Sun  to  the 
sign  of  the  Goat  or  the  Capri- 
corn, the  son  of  Neptune,  ac- 
cording to  some,  and  grandson 
to  the  Sun,  according  to  others. 
This  passage  is  marked  by  the 
setting  of  the  river  of  the  Aqua- 
rius, which  flows  under  the  sta- 
ble of  the  Capricorn,  and  the 
source  of  which  is  in  the  hands 
of  Aristeus,  son  of  the  river 
Peneus. 


FOURTH   LABOR. 

Triumph  of  Hercules  over  a 
Hind  with  golden  horns  and 
feet  of  brass,  which  Hercules 
took  on  the  seashore,  where  it 
was  reposing. 


FIFTH  LABOR. 

Hercules  gives  chase,  near 
Stymphalia,  to  the  Birds  of  the 
Stymphalian  Lake,  which  are 
represented  in  No.  3  in  the 
medals  of  Perinthus. 


SIXTH  LABOR. 

Hercules  cleans  the  stables 
of  Augias,  the  son  of  the  Sun, 
or,  according  to  others,  the  son 
of  Neptune.  He  makes  the 
river  Peneus  run  through  it. 


175 


SEVENTH  MONTH. 

The  Sun  enters  the  sign  of 
Waterman  or  Aquarius,  and  at 
the  place  in  the  Heavens  where 
the  full  Moon  was  found  every 
year,  which  served  to  denote 
the  epoch  for  the  celebration 
of  the  Olympic  games.  This 
passage  was  marked  by  the 
Vulture,  placed  in  the  Heav- 
ens alongside  the  constellation 
called  Prometheus,  at  the  same 
time  that  the  celestial  Bull, 
called  the  Bull  of  Paiiphae  and 
of  Marathon,  culminated  in  the 
meridian,  at  the  setting  of  the 
Horse  Arion  or  Pegasus. 

EIGHTH   MONTH, 

Passage  of  the  Sun  to  the 
sign  of  the  Fishes,  fixed  by  the 
rising  in  the  morning  of  the 
celestial  Horse,  the  head  of 
which  is  bearing  on  Aristeus, 
or  on  the  Aquarius,  the  son  of 
Cyrene. 

NINTH   MONTH. 

The  Sun  enters  the  sign  of 
the  Ram,  consecrated  to  Mars, 
and  which  is  also  called  the 
Ram  of  the  Golden  Pleece, 
This  passage  is  marked  by  the 
rising  of  the  ship  Argo,  the  set- 


SEVENTH    LABOR. 

Hercules  arrives  at  Elis.  He 
was  mounted  on  the  horse 
Arion;  he  drags  along  wiih 
him  the  Bull  of  Greta,  beloved 
by  Pasiphae,  which  afterwards 
ravaged  the  plains  of  Mara- 
thon. He  institutes  the  cele- 
bration of  the  Olympic  games, 
where  he  is  the  first  to  enter 
the  lists;  he  kills  the  Vulture 
of  Prometheus. 


EIGHTH  LABOR. 

Hercules  makes  the  conquest 
of  the  Horses  of  Diomedes,  the 
son  of  Gyrene. 


NINTH  LABOR. 

Hercules  embarks  on  board 
the  ship  Argo,  in  order  to  make 
the  conquest  of  the  Ram  of  the 
Golden  Fleece.  He  fights  with 
martial  women,  daughters  of 
Mars,  from  whom  he  takes  a 


176 


ting  of  Andromeda,  or  of  the 
celestial  Woman  and  of  her 
Girdle;  by  that  of  the  Whale; 
by  the  rising  of  Medusa,  and 
by  the  setting  of  the  Queen 
Cassiope. 

TENTH    MONTH. 

The  Sun  leaves  the  ram  of 
Phrixus  and  enters  the  sign  of 
the  Bull.  This  transit  is  marked 
by  the  setting  of  Orion,  who 
was  in  love  with  the  Atlantides 
or  Pleiades;  by  that  of  Bootes, 
the  driver  of  the  Oxen  of  Ica- 
rus; by  that  of  the  river  Eri- 
danus;  by  the  rising  of  the 
Atlantides,  and  by  that  of  the 
Goat,  the  wife  of  Faunus. 

ELEVENTH   MONTH. 

The  Sun  enters  the  sign  of 
the  Twins,  which  transit  is  in- 
dicated by  the  setting  of  the 
Dog  Procyon,  by  the  cosmical 
rising  of  the  Great  Dog,  fol- 
lowed by  the  stretching  out  of 
the  Hydra  and  by  the  rising  in 
the  evening  of  the  celestial 
Swan. 

TWELFTH   MONTH. 
The  Sun  enters  the  sign  of 
the  Cancer,  which  corresponds 
with  the  last  month,  indicated 


magnificent  girdle,  and  liber- 
ates a  Maiden  exposed  to  a 
Wliale  or  a  Sea-monster,  like 
the  one  to  which  Andromeda, 
the  daughter  of  Cassiope,  was 
exposed. 

TENTH   LABOR. 

Hercules,  after  his  voyage 
with  the  Argonauts,  in  order  to 
conquer  the  Ram,  returns  to 
Hesperia  to  make  the  conquest 
of  the  Oxen  of  Geryon;  he 
also  kills  a  tyrannical  Prince 
who  persecuted  the  Atlantides, 
and  arrives  in  Italy  at  the  house 
of  P^aunus  at  the  rising  of  the 
Pleiades. 


ELEVENTH  LABOR. 

Hercules  conquers  a  terrible 
Dog,  the  tail  of  which  was  a 
Serpent,  and  the  head  of  which 
was  bristling  with  serpents;  he 
defeats  also  Cygnus,  or  the 
Prince  Swan,  at  the  time  in 
which  the  Dog-star  scorches 
the  Earth  with  its  fire. 

TWELFTH   LABOR. 

Hercules  travels  in  Hesperia 
in  order  to  gather  Golden  Ap- 
ples   guarded    by    a    Dragon, 


177 


by  the  setting  of  the  Stream 
of  the  Waterman  and  of  the 
Centaur;  by  the  rising  of  the 
Shepherd  and  his  Sheep,  at 
the  time  when  the  constella- 
tion of  the  Hercules  Ingenicu- 
lus  is  descending  towards  the 
occidental  regions  called  Hes- 
peria;  followed  by  the  Polar 
Dragon,  the  guardian  of  the 
Apples  growing  in  the  gar- 
den of  the  Hesperides;  which 
dragon  he  puts  under  his  feet, 
as  marked  in  the  sphere,  and 
which  falls  near  him  towards 
the  setting. 


which,  in  our  spheres,  is  near 
the  pole;  according  to  others, 
to  carry  off  sheep  with  a  Golden 
Fleece.  He  is  preparing  to 
make  a  sacrifice,  and  puts  on  a 
robe  dyed  in  the  blood  of  a 
Centaur  whom  he  had  slain  at 
the  passage  of  a  river.  By 
this  robe  he  is  consumed  with 
fire;  he  dies,  and  ends  thus  his 
mortal  career,  in  order  to  re- 
sume his  youth  in  Heaven,  and 
to  enjoy  there  immortality. 


REFERENCE   NOTES. 


Note  1.  For  accounts  of  Crishna,  see  the  Vishnu 
Purana,  pp.  491-665,  trans,  by  Wilson;  London,  1840. 
Maurice,  History  of  Hindostan,  vol.  i.,  p.  283;  vol.  ii.,  pp.- 
324-479,  497,  563 ;  London,  1802.  Maurice,  Indian  An- 
tiquities, vol.  i.,  pp.  112,  113;  vol.  ii.,  p.  149;  vol.  iii.,  pp. 
45-48,  95  ;  London,  1874.  Asiatic  Researches,  vol.  i., 
pp.  259-261,  273.  Higgins,  Anacalypsis,  vol.  i.,  pp.  129- 
134;  London,  1836.  Joguth  Chunder  Gangooly,  Life  and 
Religion  of  the  Hindoos,  p.  134 ;  Boston,  i860.  BhS,gavat- 
Geeta  :  Cox,  The  Mythology  of  the  Aryan  Nations,  vol.  ii., 
pp.  105,  130,  133,  137;  London,  1870.  Doane,  Bible 
Myths,  pp.  498,  499;  New  York,  1883.  Miiller,  The 
Origin  and  Growth  of  Religion,  pp.  230,  261,  361 ;  London, 
1873.  Prichard,  An  Analysis  of  Egyptian  Mythology,  pp. 
283-292;  London,  1873.  Rawlinson,  Religion  of  the 
Ancient  World,  pp.  126-149;  London.  Williams,  Hin- 
duism, pp.  108-110,  144,  215;  London,  1877.  Bonwick, 
Egyptian  Belief,  p.  168;  London,  1878.  Child,  Progress 
of  Religious  Ideas,  vol.  i.,  p.  72;  New  York,  1855. 
Williams,  Hinduism,  pp.  no,  119.  Fiske,  Myths  and 
Myth-Makers,  pp.  104-107 ;  Boston,  1877. 

Note  2.  For  legends  of  the  Hindoos,  see  Williams, 
Indian  Wisdom,  p.  324;  London,  1875.  Gross,  The 
Heathen  Religion,  p.  124;  Boston,  1856.  Allen,  India 
Ancient  and  Modern,  pp.  382,  383  ;  London,  1856.     Mau- 


i8o 


rice,  Indian  Antiquities,  vol.  i.,  pp.  125-127;  vol.  iv.,  p. 
372  ;  London,  1867.  Tod,  History  of  Rajapoutane,  p.  581. 
Colenso,  The  Pentateuch  Examined,  vol.  iv.,  p.  153. 
Chambers'  Encyclopaedia,  art.  Cherubim.  Smith,  Com- 
prehensive Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  art.  Cherubim. 
Priestley,  Comparison  of  the  Institutes  of  Moses  with  the 
Hindoos  and  Other  Ancient  Nations,  pp.  35-49 ;  North- 
umberland, 1799.  Fergusson,  Tree  and  Serpent  Worship, 
p.  13;  London,  1868.  Wake,  Phallicism  in  Ancient  Re- 
ligions, pp.  46,  47.  Baring-Gould,  Legends  of  the 
Patriarchs  and  Prophets,  p.  148;  New  York,  1872.  Mau- 
rice, History  of  Hindustan,  vol.  i.,  p.  408 ;  vol.  ii.,  pp.  227 
et  seq.  Child,  Progress  of  Religious  Ideas,  vol.  i.,  p.  3  ; 
Mahabharata. 

Note  3.  For  accounts  of  Buddha,  see  Rgya-Cher-rol- 
pan,  pp.  61,  6z,  69-82,  81,  97,  113,  178,  214,  259,  355, 
374;  Wasseljew,  p.  95  ;  Lotus,  pp.  xiv.,  xv.,  82,  102,  104, 
130;  v.,  p.  106.  Bunsen,  The  Angel  Messiah,  pp.  45-48 ; 
London,  1880.  Miiller,  An  Introduction  to  the  Science 
of  Religion,  pp.  28,  244.  Hardy,  Eastern  Monarchism, 
pp.  6,  62,  230;  London,  i860.  Hardy,  The  Legends  and 
Theories  of  the  Buddhists  compared  with  History  and 
Science,  pp.  40,  50,  52,  134;  London,  1866.  Beal,  Ro- 
mantic History  of  Buddha,  pp.  244-256;  London,  1875. 
Rhys-Davids,  Buddhism,  pp.  36,  53,  129-204;  London, 
1881.  Lillie,  Buddha  and  Early  Buddhism,  pp.  68-179; 
London,  1881.  Lefmann,  pp.  21,  51,  124.  Buddhist  Birth- 
Stories,  vol.  i.,  pp.  69,  74,  113.  Mara,  Koppen,  vol.  i., 
pp.  88,  94,  114.  Seydel,  pp.  163,  281.  Dhammapada, 
vol.  vii.,  pp.  33,  334.  Hue's  Travels.  Burnouf,  Divya- 
Avadana.  Oswald,  Secret  of  the  East,  pp.  135,  137; 
Boston,  1883.     Foucaux,  p.  304.    Sutta-Napatha,  vol.  iii., 


i8i 


p.  II.  St.  Hilaire,  p.  44.  Higgins,  Anacalypsis,  vol.? 
.p.  159.  Bulfinch,  Age  of  Fable,  p.  432;  Boston,  1870. 
Doane,  Bible  Myths,  pp.  202,  371.  Asiatic  Researches, 
vol.  iii.,  pp.  285,  286.  King,  Gnostics  and  their  Remains, 
p.  167;  London,  1884.  Mahavagga,  p.  16.  Gatha,  pp. 
53,  143,  165.  Plath,  vol.  ii.,  p.  2.  Fuman,  Ancient  Faiths 
and  Modern,  pp.  82  et  seq.;  New  York,  1876.  Miiller,  A 
History  of  Ancient  Sanscrit  Literature ;  London,  i860. 
Fergusson,  Tree  and  Serpent  Worship,  pp.  56,  113;  Lon- 
don, 1868.  Bunsen,  The  Angel  Messiah,  p.  33  ;  London, 
1880. 

Note  4.  For  accounts  of  Mithra,  see  Lundy,  Monu- 
mental Christianity,  p.  167 ;  New  York,  1876.  Dupuis, 
The  Origin  of  All  Religious  Belief,  pp.  246,  247 ;  trans, 
from  the  French,  New  Orleans,  1872.  Higgins,  Ana- 
calypsis, vol.  i.,  p.  218  ;  vol.  ii.,  pp.  58,  59,  6$,  99.  Renan, 
Hibbert  Lectures,  p.  33.  Bonwick,  Egyptian  Belief,  p. 
240.  King,  Gnostics  and  their  Remains,  pp.  47,  51. 
Higgins,  Celtic  Druids,  p.  163 ;  London,  1827.  Child, 
Progress  of  Religious  Ideas,  vol.  i.,  pp.  3,  272,  279.  The 
Angel  Messiah,  p.  287.  Colenso,  The  Pentateuch  Ex- 
amined, vol.  iv.,  p.  153;  London,  1863.  Doane,  Bible 
Myths,  376.  Bunce,  Fairy  Tales,  p.  18  ;  New  York,  1878. 
Dunlap,  Mysteries  of  Adoni,  p.  139;  London,  1861.  Bar- 
ing-Gould, Legends  of  the  Patriarchs  and  Prophets,  pp.  17, 
18;  New  York,  1872.  Miiller,  A  History  of  Ancient  San- 
scrit Literature,  pp.  405  et  seq.  Asiatic  Researches,  vol.  v., 
p.  270.  Williams,  Hinduism,  pp.  24,  176,  214.  Rawlin- 
son,  Herodotus,  p.  171.  Westropp,  Ancient  Symbol  Wor- 
ship, pp.  25, 47.  Miiller,  Chips  from  a  German  Workshop, 
vol.  ii.,  pp.  277,  290;  London,  1876.  Knight,  Ancient 
Art  and  Mythology,  p.  156;  Boston,  1876. 


1 82 


Note  5.  For  accounts  of  Osiris,  Horns,  Isis,  Neith,  and 
Sarapis,  see  the  following  authorities  :  Prichard,  An  Analy- 
sis of  Egyptian  Mythology,  pp.  55-109.  Bonwick,  Egyp- 
tian Belief,  pp.  140-186,  261,  287,  396,  404,  412.  Renouf, 
Religion  of  Ancient  Egypt,  pp.  83-93.  Kenrick,  Ancient 
Egypt  under  the  Pharaohs,  vol.  i.,  pp.  283,  424;  New 
York,  1852.  Higgins,  Anacalypsis,  vol.  i.,  pp.  138,  304; 
vol.  ii.,  pp.  99,  102.  Maurice,  Indian  Antiquities,  vol.  i., 
p.  127  ;  vol.  ii.,  pp.  14,  219.  Rawlinson,  Hibbert  Lectures, 
p.  105.  The  History  of  Herodotus,  book  ii.,  pp.  170, 171  ; 
New  York,  1871 .  Baring-Gould,  Legends  of  the  Patriarchs 
and  Prophets,  p.  19.  Septhenes,  The  Religion  of  the 
Ancient  Greeks,  p.  214;  trans,  from  the  French;  London, 
1788.  King,  Gnostics  and  their  Remains,  p.  71,  note, 
p.  109.  Draper,  History  of  the  Conflict  between  Religion 
and  Science,  pp.47,  48  ;  New  York,  1876.  Cory,  Ancient 
Fragments,  pp.  80,  81  ;  London,  1876.  The  History  of 
Cornelius  Tacitus,  book  v.,  ch.  iii. ;  London,  1831.  Knight, 
Ancient  Art  and  Mythology,  p.  98;  New  York,  1874. 
Goldziher,  Mythology  among  the  Hebrews,  pp.  22,  127, 
320,  322,  392,  446;  London,  1877.  Rawlinson,  The  Re- 
ligions of  the  Ancient  World,  pp.  17  et  seq. ;  London. 
Fergusson,  Tree  and  Serpent  Worship,  p.  5.  Inman, 
Ancient  Faiths  embodied  in  Ancient  Names,  vol.  i.,  p. 
159;  vol.  ii.,  pp.  284,  679,  767,  831;  London,  1872. 
Squires,  The  Serpent  Symbol,  pp.  39,  78  ;  New  York, 
1851.  Oort,  Bible  for  Learners,  vol.  i.,  p.  301;  Boston, 
1878.  Miiller,  Origin  and  Growth  of  Religion,  p.  130; 
London,  1873.  Cox,  The  Mythology  of  the  Aryan  Nations, 
vol.  ii.,  pp.  115,  125,  157;  London,  1870.  Dupuis,  The 
Origin  of  All  Religions,  pp.  73,  256,  263,  397.  Child, 
Progress  of  Religious  Ideas,  pp.  257,  259.  Renouf,  The 
Story  of  Ancient  Egypt,  pp.  34,  35 ;   New  York,   1887. 


i83 

Gross,  Heathen  Religion,  pp.  122,  123;  Boston,  1856. 
Dunlap,  Vestiges  of  the  Spirit  History  of  Man,  pp.  35,  40, 
108;  New  York,  1858.  Dunlap,  The  Mysteries  of  Adoni, 
pp.  124,  125;  London,  1861.  Murray,  Manual  of  Mythol- 
ogy^ PP'  347'  34^  5  N^w  York,  1876.  Inman,  Ancient 
Pagan  and  Modern  Christian  Symbolism,  pp.  13,  14,  50 ; 
London,  1869. 

Note  6.     For  authorities  quoted  in  account  of  Her- 
cules, see   Steinthal's   I^egend  of  Samson  in  Goldziher's 
Hebrew  Mythology,  pp.  392-419,  also  pp.  22,  137,   138. 
Volney,  Researches  in  Ancient  History,  p.  41,  also  note  on 
p.  42.     Murray,  Manual  of  Mythology,  pp.  124,  247-263. 
Bulfinch,  Age  of  Fable,  pp.  200,  201.     Dillaway,  Roman 
Antiquities,  p.   124;  New  York,   1876.     Cox,  Mythology 
of  the  Aryan  Nations,  vol.  i.,  pp.  84,  107  ;  vol.  ii.,  pp.  47,  48, 
72  ;  London,  1870.     Cox,  Tales  of  Ancient  Greece,  p.  xxvi., 
xxvii.,  69  et  seq.;  London,  1880.     Montfaucon,  PAntiquitd 
Expliqude,  vol.  i.,  p.  213;  Paris,  1772.     Herodotus,  book 
ii.,  chap.  xiv. ;  New  York,  187 1.    Chambers'  Encyclopaedia, 
art.    Hercules.     Cory,   Ancient  Fragments,  p.  36,  note 
London,  1876;  Monumental  Christianity,  p.  399.     Oort 
Bible  for  Learners,  vol.  i.,  pp.  414-422,  416.     Knappert 
The  Religion  of  Israel,  p.  61 ;  Boston,  1878.     Inman,  An^ 
cient  Faiths  embodied  in  Ancient  Names,  vol.  ii.,  p.  679 
Doane,  Bible  Myths,  p.  72,,  note  2.     Volney,  Ruins,  p.  41 
Williams,  Hinduism,  pp.   108,   167.     Asiatic  Researches 
vol.  v.,  p.  270.     Buckley,  Cities  of  the  World,  pp.  41,  42 
Smith,  Assyrian  Discoveries,  pp.   167,  265  ;  New  York 
1875.     Smith,  Chaldean  Account  of  Genesis,  p.  174;  New 
York,  1876.     Knight,  Ancient  Art  and  Mythology,  p.  92 
Tacitus,  Annals,  book  ii.,  ch.  lix. ;  London,  1831.     Mau 
rice,  Indian  Antiquities,  vol.  ii.,  p.  155.     Kreightley,  The 


i84 

Mythology  of  Ancient  Greece,  p.  215;  New  York,  1843. 
King,  Gnostics  and  their  Remains,  pp.  48-70.  Prichard, 
An  Analysis  of  Egyptian  Mythology,  pp.  49,  50,  75,  95, 
113,  119.  Giles,  Hebrew  and  Christian  Records,  p.  86^/ 
seq.;  London,  1853.  Socrates,  Ecclesiastical  History, 
book  v.,  ch.  xxii.,  London,  1630.  Higgins,  Anacalypsis, 
vol.  i.,  pp.  237-243.  Taylor,  Diegesis,  pp.  214,  232.  Du- 
puis,  Origin  of  All  Religious  Belief,  pp.  237-257.  Lundy, 
Monumental  Christianity,  p.  399.  Dunlap,  Mysteries  of 
Adoni,  pp.  94-96.  Cox,  The  Mythology  of  the  Aryan 
Nations,  vol.  i.,  pp.  84,  107;  vol.  ii.,  pp.  47,  48.  Child, 
Progress  of  Religious  Ideas,  vol.  i.,  p.  214.  Inman,  An- 
cient Faiths  and  Modern,  p.  304 ;  New  York,  1876.  Faber, 
Origin  of  Pagan  Idolatry,  vol.  i.,  p.  443 ;  Fergusson,  Tree 
and  Serpent  Worship,  pp.  10,  13,  31. 

Note  7.  For  accounts  of  Bacchus,  see  Dupuis,  Origin 
of  All  Religious  Belief,  pp.  80-175,  257,  352.  Higgins, 
Anacalypsis,  vol.  i.,  pp.  221,  305,  322,  328  ;  vol.  ii.,  pp.  19, 
102.  Prichard,  An  Analysis  of  Egyptian  Mythology,  pp.  3, 
21,  63,  70.  Taylor,  Diegesis,  pp.  12,  187,  191,  212,  213. 
Hymns  of  Orpheus.  King,  Gnostics  and  their  Remains, 
p.  49.  Oort,  Bible  for  Learners,  vol.  iii.,  p.  67.  Bell's 
Pantheon,  vol.  i.,  p.  118,  art.  Bacchus.  Montfaucon, 
TAntiquitd  Expliqude,  vol.  i.,  p.  211  ;  Paris,  1722.  Faber, 
Origin  of  Pagan  Idolatry,  vol.  i.,  p.  443.  Inman,  Ancient 
Faiths  and  Modern,  p.  304;  London,  1876.  Bulfinch, 
Age  of  Fable,  p.  220;  Boston,  1870.  Cox,  Tales  of 
Ancient  Greece,  p.  xxxii. ;  London,  1876.  Higgins,  Cel- 
tic Druids,  p.  127;  London,  1827.  Bonwick,  Egyptian 
Belief,  p.  212;  London,  1878.  Lundy,  Monumental  Chris- 
tianity, p.  125.  Dunlap,  Vestiges  of  the  Spirit  History  of 
Man,  p.  217;  New  York,  1858.     Taylor,  Eleusinian  and 


i8s 

Bacchic  Mysteries.      Rawlinson,   The   Religions   of  the 
Ancient  World. 

Note  8.  For  accounts  of  the  Scandinavian  gods  and 
goddesses,  see  Mallet,  Northern  Antiquities.  Goldziher, 
Mythology  among  the  Hebrews,  p.  430.  Knight,  Ancient 
Art  and  Mythology,  p.  85.  Chambers'  Encyclopaedia,  art. 
Yule.     Bulfinch,  Age  of  Fable. 

Note  9.  For  accounts  of  Ostara  and  the  Ancient 
Druids,  see  Higgins,  Anacalypsis,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  59,  99,  108, 
109-259.  Chambers'  Encyclopasdia,  art.  Easter.  Dupuis, 
Origin  of  All  Religious  Belief,  pp.  237,  257.  Higgins,  Celtic 
Druids,  p.  163;  Taylor,  Diegesis,  pp.  167,  184.  Lundy, 
Monumental  Christianity,  p.  167.  Forlong,  Rivers  of  Life, 
or  Faiths  of  Men,  vol.  i.,  p.  355  ;  London,  1883.  Bulfinch, 
Age  of  Fable. 

Note  10.  For  authorities  on  China,  see  Semedo,  His- 
tory of  China,  p.  289.  Thornton,  History  of  China,  vol.  i., 
pp.  30,  137;  London,  1844.  Higgins,  Anacalypsis,  vol.  ii., 
p.  227.  Child,  Progress  Religious  Ideas,  vol.  i.,  pp.  206- 
210.  Colenso,  Pentateuch  Examined,  vol.  iv.,  p.  152. 
Baring-Gould,  Legends  of  the  Patriarchs  and  Prophets, 
p.  28.  Doane,  Bible  Myths,  p.  14.  Gross,  The  Heathen 
Religion,  p.  60;  Boston,  1856,  Cutzlaff's  Voyages,  p.  154. 
Legge,  The  Religions  of  China. 

Note  11.  For  accounts  of  Quetzalcoatle,  see  Kings- 
borough,  Mexican  Antiquities,  vol.  vL,  pp.  5,  166,  167, 
176,  220,  361,  369;  London,  1831.  Amberly,  Religious 
Belief,  pp.  49  et  seq.;  New  York,  1877  ;  Squires,  The  Ser- 
pent Symbol,  pp.  161,   175;   Brinton,  Myths  of  the  New 


1 86 


World,  pp.  95,  i8o,  i8i,  203,  204;  New  York,  1868. 
Lundy,  Monumental  Christianity,  p.  393.  Inman,  Ancient 
Faiths  and  Modern,  pp.  33-37 ;  New  York,  1876.  Bar- 
ing-Gould, Legends  of  the  Patriarchs  and  Prophets,  p.  119. 
Westropp,  Ancient  Symbol  Worship.  Humboldt,  Re- 
searches, vol.  i.,  p.  91 ;  London,  18 14.  Prescott,  History 
of  the  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol.  i.,  p.  60 ;  Philadelphia, 
1873.  Fergusson,  Tree  and  Serpent  Worship,  p.  37  ;  Lon- 
don, 1868.  Acosta,  The  Natural  and  Moral  History  of  the 
Indies,  p.  513;  London,  1604.  Forlong,  Rivers  of  Life, 
vol.  i.,  pp.  94,  143,  242;  vol.  ii.,  pp.  94,  490,  499,  501. 
Rdville,  The  Native  Religions  of  Mexico  and  Peru. 

Note  12.  For  accounts  of  Indian  Saviours,  see  Squires, 
Serpent  Symbol,  pp.  187-192.  Schoolcraft,  Notes  of  the 
Iroquois.     Forlong,  Rivers  of  Life,  vol.  i.,  pp.  496,  497,  501. 

Note  13.  For  accounts  of  Tammuz  or  Adonis  (Adonai 
in  Hebrew),  see  Prichard,  Ancient  Egyptian  Mythology, 
pp.  64-66.  King,  Gnostics,  p.  102.  Cox,  The  Mythology 
of  the  Aryan  Race,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  84,  113,  125.  Inman, 
Ancient  Faiths  embodied  in  Ancient  Names,  vol.  ii.,  pp. 
213,  350.  Lundy,  Monumental  Christianity,  pp.  216,  224. 
Doane,  Bible  Myths,  p.  220.  Colenso,  Lectures,  pp.  297. 
Higgins,  Anacalypsis,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  99,  114.  Colenso,  The 
Pentateuch  Examined,  vol.  i.,  p.  115,  App.  Dupuis, 
Origin  of  All  Religious  Belief,  pp.  161,  233.  Taylor, 
Diegesis,  pp.  162-164.  Gross,  The  Heathen  Religion,  p. 
287.  Dunlap,  Vestiges  of  the  Spirit  History  of  Man,  p.  216. 
Dunlap,  The  Mysteries  of  Adoni,  p.  23.  Dunlap,  Sod  the 
Son  of  the  Man,  pp.  vii.,  39;  London,  1861.  Mliller,  In- 
troduction to  the  Science  of  Religion,  p.  186.  Ezekiel 
viii.,  14;  Jeremiah  xliv.  16-22.     King,  Gnostics,  p.  91. 


i87 

Note  14.  For  Accounts  of  the  legends  of  the  Chaldeans 
and  Babylonians,  see  Bonwick,  Egyptian  Belief,  pp.  28,  44. 
Smith,  Chaldean  Account  of  Genesis,  pp.  22,  28,  29,  42,  44 ; 
New  York,  1876.  Smith,  Assyrian  Discoveries,  pp.  167, 
397 ;  New  York,  1875.  Goldziher,  Mythology  among  the 
Hebrews,  pp.  316-330,  396.  Murray,  Manual  of  Mythol- 
ogy, p.  86.  Bunsen,  Angel  Messiah,  p.  108.  Dunlap,  Sod 
the  Son  of  the  Man,  pp.  5,  6.  Colenso,  The  Pentateuch 
Examined,  vol.  iv.,  p.  269.  Fiske,  Myths  and  Myth- 
Makers,  p.  72;  Boston,  1877.  Miiller,  History  of  An- 
cient Sanscrit  Literature.  Williams,  Indian  Wisdom, 
p.  29 ;  London,  1875.  Rawlinson,  The  Religions  of  the 
Ancient  World,  pp.  48  et  seq. 

Note  15.  For  accounts  of  the  Essenes,  see  Lillie, 
Buddha  and  Early  Buddhism,  pp.  58-67,  203-221.  King, 
Gnostics,  p.  23.  Oswald,  Secret  of  the  East,  p.  126. 
Ginsburg,  The  Essenes :  Their  History  and  Doctrines. 
Inman,  Ancient  Faiths  and  Modern,  pp.  141,  193,  197. 
De  Quincey,  Historical  and  Critical  Essays.  Hitchcock, 
Christ  the  Spirit. 


INDEX. 


Abraham,  49,  63,  87. 
Achilles,  73,  132,  133. 
Achyuta,  151. 
Aditi,  41. 

Aderenedesa,  148,  150. 
Adonai,  132. 
Adonis,  84,  132,  133. 
Afrasiab,  163. 
Agathon,  iii. 
Agni,  127,  140. 
Ahriman,  159-165. 
Aithra,  151. 
Alcmene,  68,  170. 
Alexander,  42,  98,  125,  126. 
Algonquins,  8^- 
Ananda,  54,  56. 
Andromeda,  176. 
Apis,  88. 

Aquarius,  86,  154,  174,  175. 
Aries,  30,  108,  132,  154,  156. 
Aristeus,  174. 
Aristobulus,  114,  115. 
Arjuna,  39,  50. 
Arusha,  151. 

Aryans,    28,    29,    32,    33-36, 
43,  59,   62,   88,    109,    140^ 

Asita,  51,  154. 


Asoka,  58,  91,  98,  130. 
Augeas,  174. 

Baal,  88. 

Babel,  48,  80,  86,  87. 

Bacchus,  71-73. 

Bala-Rama,  49. 

Baldur,  74,  139. 

Ballaji,  129. 

Baptism,  33,  45,  59,  61,  64,  74, 

79,  85,  156. 
Brahma,  44,  48,  57,  127,  153. 
Buddha,  49-59,  98,  100,  109, 

129,  143,  153-158. 
Buddhists,  48,  49,  54,  91,  93, 

97,  108,  130,  143. 

Cadmus,  71. 

Capricornus,  32,  49,  86,   155, 

163,  174. 
Cassiope,  175. 
Ceres,  72. 
Chandragupta,  91. 
Chemosh,  88. 
Christ,  30,  56,  60,  66,  68,  148, 

150. 
Crishna,   37-43,   49,    50,    66, 

IIS,  128,  129,  151. 


I  go 


Cross,  32-34,  40,  45,  63,  74, 
79,  85,  99,  109,  112,  115, 
124-143. 

Crucified,  31-33.  4°,  73,  7^, 
84,  110-116,  129,  133. 

Cybele,  73,  74. 

Cyrene,  175. 

Dahana,  41. 

Danae,  151. 

Daphne,  41. 

David,  74. 

Deluge,  48,  61,  67,  68,  74,  77, 

80,85. 
Devadatta,  52. 
Devaki,  37,  41,  66,  151. 
Devil,  43,  78,  81,  89,  102,  103, 

143,  161. 
Diana,  174. 
Diomedes,  175. 
Dionysius,  71. 
Dove,  45,  85,  130. 

Easter,  75,  76,  162. 
Eden,  47,  61,  74,  76,  85,  162. 
Edues,  83. 
Elisha,  49. 
Eopuco,  78. 

Essenes,  91-ICX),  108,  116-119. 
Eucharist,  23,  $9,  61,  64,  72, 
79,  85. 

Faun  us,  176. 

Fish,  33,  45,  49,  69,  154,  155, 
163,  175- 


Frey,  74. 
Frigga,  74. 

Gautama,  57,  lOO. 
Geryon,  176. 
Gethsemane,  90. 
Gnostics,  115. 
Goliah,  74. 
Gymnosophists,  97,  98. 

Hebrews,  88,  89. 

Hell  or  Hades,  32,  ;22,  40,  56, 

59,  60,  65,  74,  79,  84,  89. 
Hera,  68. 

Hercules,  68-70, 151,  170-177. 
Homer,  42. 
Horus,  65,  66,  124,  148,  150, 

168. 

Incarnation,  34,  42,  49,  50,  82, 

83,  89. 
Indra,  41,  128,  129. 
lo,  151. 
lokaste,  151. 
Iroquois,  83. 
Isaac,  49. 
Isaiah,  42. 

Isis,  65-67,  148,  150,  166-169. 
Ixion,  73,  131,  132. 
Izdubar,  87. 

Jesus,  30,  60,  69,  148,  150. 
Jesus  Christ,   38,    66,   84,  85, 

89-122,  127,  129,  132,  134, 

137,  151.  152,  154- 


191 


[o8- 


[6i, 


Jonah,  49,  6i. 
Joshua,  49. 

Kansa,  37,  38,  115,  154. 
Kantaka,  53,  155. 

Ladon,  71. 

Lamb,  30,  ^3,  60,  66,  76, 
III,  156,  161-164. 

Macara,  153. 

Magi,  60,  108,  147,  148 

Maha-Maya,  50,  153. 

Mahomet,  152. 

Manco  Capac,  83. 

Mara,  52,  156. 

MStanga,  50, 

Mayas,  82. 

Mediator,  43,  60,  83,  84. 

Medusa,  176. 

Meleagros,  73,  132. 

Michabou,  83. 

Michael,  89. 

Mithras,  59,  61. 

Moloch,  88. 

Moses,  49,  62,  68,  71,  72,  88, 

91,  93,  94,  164. 
Munchalinda,  156. 
Mutra,  49. 
Muyscas,  82. 
Mylitta,  84,  135. 

Nanda,  154. 
Nared,  37. 
Nazarene,  98,  1 15. 


Neith,  62,  65. 
Neptune,  174. 
Nigban,  57. 
Nisan,  89. 
Nutria,  73. 

Odin,  74. 

CEdipus,  151. 

Ojibways,  83, 

Ormuzd,  1 5  9- 1 65. 

Orpheus,  156. 

Osiris,    62-65,   124,   134,  156, 

166-169. 
Ostara,  74. 

Pantheus,  72. 
Pasiphae,  175. 
Pegasus,  175. 
Perseus,  151. 
Pharaoh,  50,  68. 
Pluto,  157. 
Prometheus,  73,  132,  175. 

Quetzalcoatle,  77-83,  143. 

Rama,  38. 

Redeemer,  43,  66,  72,  163. 

Resurrection,  33,  65,   72,    79, 

84,  85,  89. 
Rudraka,  52. 

Sagittarius,  154,  163,  174. 
Sais,  148,  149. 
Saktideva,  49. 
Sakaya  Muni,  90. 


192 


Sakya  Sunha,  155. 

Tien,  75,  76. 

Samson,  49,  69,  87. 

Trefoil,  45,  63. 

Sandon,  87. 

Triangle,  45,  134. 

Sandracottus,  91. 

Trinity,  29,  41,  44, 

64,  74,  76, 

Saviour,  28,  36,  41,  43,  51,  56, 

78,  83,  85,  134, 

156. 

66-79,  84,  100,  127,  128. 

Tripod,  45. 

Scorpio,  156,  174. 

Typhon,  168. 

Semele,  71. 

Serapis,  68,  107,  122,  123. 

Upananda,  154. 

Siddhdrtha,  50,  91. 

Uriel,  89. 

Siva,  44,  47,  48,  127. 

Sochiquetzal,  78-81,  152. 

Virgin,  29,  30,  36, 

41,  65-84, 

Soma,  47. 

128,  147-156,  166-169,  173 

Sujata,  156. 

Vishnu,  36,  37,41, 

42,  44,  49, 

Swastica,  130,  140,  154,  155. 

129,  155- 

Swayambhura,  48. 

Wittoba,  129. 

Talmud,  113. 

Tammuz,  84,  85,  132,  136. 

Yar,  89. 

Taurus,  154. 

Yule,  74. 

Tezcatlipoca,  77-79. 

Thasos,  70,  171. 

Zerban,  87. 

Therapeutse,  93-98. 

Zeus,  68,  136,  151. 

Theseus,  151. 

Zomo,  83. 

Thor,  74,  138,  139,  140. 

Zoroaster,  62,  160. 

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